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Budget: Reps pass amendments for second reading

By on July 19, 2013

President Goodluck Jonathan’s amendment proposals to the 2013 budget passed second reading at the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Members of the lower legislative chamber made a dramatic U-turn during Thursday’s session and endorsed the amended budget for reading against their earlier stance not to accept the proposals.

This followed an appeal by the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, who urged his colleagues to pass the budget for second reading for “the sake of national interest.”

Tambuwal recalled that at an executive session the members held on Wednesday, he had appealed to them to accept the proposals.

In his amendment proposals, the President called on the National Assembly to restore about N80bn, which was slashed from the original N4.9tn budget he signed into law in February.

He had argued that the money was allocated to critical projects, including roads.

But, members had disagreed with him, saying instead, President should forward a supplementary budget to the National Assembly.

However, during a meeting on Tuesday, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, told the lawmakers why it would be impossible for the government to propose a supplementary budget.

The minister, who met with members of the Joint Committee on Appropriation/Finance, explained that the country was currently losing 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily.

She said the development meant a loss of revenue to the government and attributed the development to vandalism, illegal bunkering and production shut-in.

It will also be recalled that Okonjo-Iweala had claimed two weeks ago that government would no longer be able to pay workers’ salaries by September if the amendments were not passed.

She stated that about N35bn of the allocation for personnel cost was also affected in the budget cut.

Briefing members before the budget was endorsed for second reading, the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Mr. John Enoh, said the committee reached a “common agreement with the executive on some of the areas of things to be done.”

However, the Minority Whip, Mr. Sampson Osagie, suggested that in looking at the President’s proposals, “the committee must study the details of each Ministry, Department and Agency on personnel cost.”

He stated that this was necessary because the same government that was complaining about cuts in personnel cost had admitted that it removed 45,000 ghost workers from its payroll.

“I am sure that provisions were made for these workers in the 2013 budget. So, I don’t understand why there should be so much talk about the personnel cost if the National Assembly decided to reduce it”, he added.

Members later passed the proposals for second reading in a majority voice vote.

 

 

[Punch]