The House of Representatives has reacted to claims by President Muhammadu Buhari that the National Assembly mutilated the 2018 budget by replacing priority projects with those that will be hard to implement.
The House told the President that it is not a rubber stamp that should return proposals made to it without making inputs.
Earlier today, Buhari had expressed displeasure while signing the 2018 appropriation bill over mutilation of the budget and squarely blamed the National Assembly, saying he signed the bill in order to avoid “further slowdown the pace of recovery of our economy, which has doubtlessly been affected by the delay in passing the budget.”
Criticisms by the President also bordered on the insertions by the legislature, late passage and increment of its budget.
Reacting to this, the green chamber in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, stated that the federal legislature is not a “rubber-stamp” and they have the “constitutional power of appropriation to alter, make additions, costs or reduce as it may deem necessary” hence their action is “justifiable.”
Speaking on the late passage of the bill, Namdas said it is the National Assembly’s desire to return our budget cycle to January-December but the 2018 budget also “came behind schedule in November 2017, even though this attempt was seen as one of the earliest in recent years.”
He urged the executive to hasten their reporting time to the National Assembly by complying fully with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The Spokesman also said heads of MDAs are equally at fault in the late passage reminding the President that he had to issue an order that they appear to defend their budget after repeated alarm by the legislature.
In respect of new projects in budget, Namdas explained that the legislature who are also representing their constituents had to reflect the wish of their people in the budget adding that “some of the projects designed by the executive, as high-sounding as their names suggest, do not meet the needs of the common man.”
He justified the National Assembly’s budget saying it remains “far below the N150bn in the years before 2015.”
He said: “Before 2015, the budget of the National Assembly was N150billion for several years. It was cut down to N120bn in 2015 and further down to N115bn in 2016. In 2017, the budget was N125bn and N139.5bn in 2018. This means that the budget of the National Assembly is still far below the N150bn in the years before 2015.”
The Reps Spokesman also welcomed the proposal by Mr. President to forward a supplementary budget to the National Assembly to address other areas of pressing demands and commend the President and the entire executive arm for a cordial working relationship.