BEVERLY HILLS, June 22, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN, on Thursday decried National Assembly’s insertion of projects outside the purview of the ministry he heads to the 2017 Appropriation Bill.
He identified Primary Health Centers as among such alien projects that would short funds needed to execute the core mandate of the ministry of power, works and housing in the fiscal year.
The minister stated that it was unfair to the Executive arm of government for such projects to find their way into the appropriation bill after public hearings on the budget and defence of the fiscal estimates by federal ministries have been concluded.
He added that it is unfair to Nigerians for the budget to be altered, cut or padded after public hearings have been conducted with taxpayers’ money and consultations held with members of the National Assembly, NASS.
Speaking at an interactive session with editors, the minister stated that it was such acts by the federal lawmakers that delayed the signing of the appropriation bill into law.
He said, “We were asked to complete those abandoned projects; the budget of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced by the National Assembly from N31bn to N10bn.
“We are owing the contractors about N15bn and they have written to us that they are going to shut down.
“Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15bn to N10bn and about N3bn or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road budget.’’
“Everybody is complaining about power supply but they also cut the budget for Manbila power project and the Bodo bridge that connects the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Station was also cut and all these were also discussed.
“If after we have defended the budget and we had gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the purpose of deliberation?’’
Fashola revealed that apart from the 200 uncompleted roads he inherited from the previous administration, the members of the National Assembly added 100 roads.
According to him, “These roads are not federal roads and some of them do not have designs, how do we award roads that were not designed irrespective of the power you have?
“It is unconstitutional for the National Assembly to legislate on state roads.
“A budget is an estimation plan that set in motion what is to be spent, how much will be borrowed and how much will be collected.
“The executive controls all the machinery for collecting taxes and other revenue with relevant data from the Ministries of Finance, Physical Planning and the Budget Office and others.
“I am not saying that the legislature cannot contribute to the budget, but I hold the view that it cannot increase the budget because they do not collect the revenue with which to run or implement the budget.”
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