Posted by By SEGUN AJAYI on
The Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA) has described the hike in 2008 national budget by the National Assembly as legislative rascality. The party also said that this action was immoral and an act of corruption.
• Accuses lawmakers of receiving bribe
The Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA) has described the hike in 2008 national budget by the National Assembly as legislative rascality. The party also said that this action was immoral and an act of corruption.
The Senate had increased the budget earlier presented by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua by N500 billion.
Reacting to this, the PPA, through its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Ben Onyechere, said the National Assembly was wrong to have increased the budget.
According to the party, President Yar'Adua knows how much he expects as revenue and how much to spend, insisting that for the National Assembly to increase the budget means that the Federal Government would be spending more than it had the capacity to absolve.
The PPA accused senators of having taken bribe from ministers to favour them in the budgetary allocation, adding that this influenced the lawmakers' action on the total budget.
It said that Nigerians expected the National Assembly to reduce the budget proposal, instead of increasing it, as nations are trying to cut down on unnecessary expenses.
The party condemned the allocation of N300 million to lawmakers as constituency project allowance, adding that such action was aimed at enriching the lawmakers.
It warned that the day of reckoning, when Nigerians would demand justice for misappropriation and financial mismanagement, is coming.
The statement said: 'The increase in budget sent by President Umaru Yar'Adua by the National Assembly to the tune of N500 billion is immoral and smacks of legislative rascality.
'It is an act of corruption for Senate to upgrade budgetary figures without the consent of the president, just because they have been bribed by some ministers against the stipulations of the NEC. Such a thing is an aberration of the present perception of democracy built on rule of law."