Saraki Tasks C’ttees to Tinker with 2017 Budget for Equitable Distribution

Appropriation Bill scales second reading as Senate adjourns plenary
Parliament probes fraudulent contract approved by BPPOmololu Ogunmade in Abuja

After three days of intensive debate, the 2017 Appropriation Bill scaled second reading on the floor of the Senate yesterday as Senate President Bukola Saraki tasked the Appropriation Committee and its sub-committees to rejig the budget to ensure equitable distribution of projects.

After referring the budget to the Committee on Appropriation for the commencement of 2017 budget process, the upper legislative chamber adjourned plenary to February 21 to pave the way for the take-off of budget defence next week.

Saraki also tasked the Appropriation Committee and all its sub-committees to factor into the appropriation process the useful contributions of his colleagues during the debate. He also tasked the committees to review the proposed expenditure in a way that could pull Nigeria out of economic recession and simultaneously lay the foundation for inclusive growth as well as the pursuit of made in Nigeria products.

Saraki also enjoined the committees to ensure that the budget was well scrutinised to the extent of discovering fraudulent duplication of items such as computers and cars in there-in.
“Distinguished colleagues let me once again thank you for the contributions in the last three days of debating the general principles of the 2017 budget proposal.

As I commit this Appropriation Bill to the Appropriation Committee and the sub-committees, we should objectively review the planned expenditure and review the revenues in line with the main objectives of the budget that we have discussed, pulling us out of economic recession, investing in our people, laying foundation for a diversified sustainable inclusive growth and pushing our agenda for a made in Nigeria products.

“In doing this, we must take note of some of the contributions by our colleagues which I took time to take note, the great concern about the fact that we passed a law on the issue of one percentage of (consolidated revenue fund) CRF which should go to the health sector and to date, it has still not been implemented. The fact is that the budget for the health sector is still below the minimum agreed percentage.

“We also talked about the capacity of government to ensure that the borrowings that are promised do come in because without that, the capacity to implement the capital project would be an issue. We are also concerned about the duplication of expenditure. The committees should be very vigilant on these areas which were said many a times by different speakers on the issue of computers, cars – some of these items that keep on repeating themselves here in here out.

“The committees should please be very vigilant on these areas to block leakages. The other area is the issue of independent revenue and to ensure that more money can come in to government coffers. In the area of infrastructure as well and that is where we play our own role to see that the bills that we have, that we want to accompany the Appropriation Bill with, we can finish them on time, that will allow private sector participation here.

“In line with our processes for 2017 and budget processes, the two innovations that we are bringing in – one is a public hearing which is going to take place likely in the week between the 7th to the 8th of February on the budget and also the meeting with the leadership and chairmen of the committees which was scheduled to take place today but I am going to announce a new date for.

And also while we are doing this exercise, one issue raised by our colleagues is the equitable distribution of projects. I will like all our respective committees to take care of that to give a sense of belonging to all and I hope that in this area, we would ensure that we do our best in ensuring that this exercise is better than that of last year. I hereby refer the bill to the Committee on Appropriation to report back in three weeks,” Saraki said.

Earlier, the Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, said the budget was flawed, noting that the projection of 140 per cent revenue increase in the oil sector without commensurate commitment to address the issue of vandalisation of oil installations in the Niger Delta was rather ambitious. He said unless the militancy in the region was first addressed, such projection would only be an illusion.

He also expressed concern about the exchange rate of N305 to $1. He said pegging the exchange rate at N305 without deliberate attempts to pump money into the economy would continue to encourage inflation, regretting that an economy that is 95 per cent import dependent will be stagnant unless borrowing is used for massive infrastructural development.

He also said unless the flaws in the budget were thoroughly addressed, the budget which had been tagged budget of growth and recovery would only end up as budget of stagnation and pitfall like that of 2016.

Also speaking, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce advised the government not to use the N100 billion for housing to build houses for income earners but should rather create a mortgage scheme which will draw N1 trillion from the pension fund and build 300,000 housing units in a year as against the 13,000 units which he said N100 billion could only build.

But Senator George Akume said the 2017 budget of N7.3 trillion which implies over a trillion increase from 2016 budget of N6.06 trillion was not realistic because the increase is marginal in view of the inflation rate of over 18 per cent.

He also said the increase was inconsistent with the foreign exchange regime. According to him, there are a number of foreign exchange regimes at present in addition to that of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He said the situation has created confusion as regards which of the exchange rate regimes would be used for the budget.

Also yesterday, the Senate mandated its Committee on Public Procurement to probe alleged irregularities in the approval of contracts by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
Moving a motion on the allegation, Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West), said the BPP approved the award of contracts to companies not recommended “by the procuring entity,” in contravention of Public Procurement Act.

He said whereas the procuring entity recommended Deux Project Ltd for the rehabilitation of Numan-Jalingo Road at the cost of N11.7 billion, the BPP proceeded to approve the contract to Rock Bridge Construction Ltd at the cost of N12.8 billion.

He also said while the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing had recommended the rehabilitation of Nenwe – Nomhe – Nburubu Nara Road project to Don Machris Global Resources Ltd. at N5.1 billion, the BPP approved the award to Arab Contractors at a higher rate of N6.4 billion.

He said whereas BPP ought to strive hard to review contract costs downwards, it has cultivated the habit of reviewing contracts upwards and also approving contracts for companies not recommended in violation of Section
The committee was asked to investigate the allegation and report its findings back to the Senate in four weeks.