House Approves N4.2 Trillion Budget

2010 Budget issues.

The House of Representatives yesterday blamed the delay in the passage of the 2010 Appropriation Bill on the numerous adjustments being brought by the Executive after the budget proposal was laid before both chambers of the National Assembly on November 24, 2009. As at the last count, the Executive through the Federal Ministry of Finance has made six adjustments to the budget thereby raising it from its initial volume of N4.079trillion to N4.279trillion.

Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Eseme Eyiboh who disclosed this at the weekly media briefing of the House said the adjustments are targeted at sectors that could yield quick impacts on the economy and tangible benefits to the livelihood of the populace, particularly security, road maintenance and service delivery.

Eyiboh hinted that the budget itself has a bearing on some long term programmes and may require a review of the benchmark of crude oil to reduce the deficit embedded in the budget from about N1.5trillion or 38 per cent of the sum.“The delay in the passage of the Appropriation Bill is not at the instance of the Legislature but at the instance of the Executive. But what you must know is that the 2010 budget is targeted at areas of quick impact such as security, infrastructural maintenance and service delivery.

“One very unique thing about the 2010 budget proposal is that the two chambers of the National Assembly have decided to engage themselves in a way and manner that the system will not suffer in any way. So instead of working separately and waiting for harmonisation, the Ap-propriation Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives are working on a common platform towards coming up with a common bill which is likely to be ready by the next legislative week.

“The essence of this close collaboration is to make sure that there is unity of purpose, conflict is reduced as well as to recover the lost time. It is also to show direction, demonstrate confidence in governance and assure Nigerians that the Legislature will always do all that is needed produce a good budget,” Eyiboh said.

According to Eyiboh, the first batch of additional allocations came on December 17, 2009 and raised the budget by the sum of N36.6billion. This was followed by another N19.6billion brought in on January 7, 2010 and another N1.8billion on January13, 2010. Others include the N13.8billion addition made on January 26, 2010, another N89.75billion on February 16, 2010 and yet another N37.71billion added to the budget on February 24, 2010. This brings the total adjustments to a whooping N199, 367,320, 798.
THISDAY check revealed that the adjustments came in the form of additional allocations to sectors such as the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, State House, National Sports Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Police Affairs, Federal Ministry of Environment, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Federal Ministry of Health, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal Character Commission and National Planning Commission. Other areas that received additional allocation in the budget proposal were Ministry of Niger Delta, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Federal Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Defence, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and Consolidated

Revenue Fund Charges Excluding Debt Charges Allocation. The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation had last week blamed the leadership of four of its Committees, for their failure to conclude their own portions of the budget work which it said has prevented the House from concluding its comprehensive report on the 2010 Appropriation Bill. Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Ayoade Adeseun said the House Committee on Education and three others were yet to submit their reports and blamed them for the delay in the budget process
Source ;Thisday Newspaper

Originally Posted by abraham

2010 Budget issues.

Two Dog friends were lying under a shade. The first friend asked the second what it was doing here under the shade when it was known all over the village that there was a big party in its owner's compound. The second dog replied that it would prefer to see the result of the party on the ground in the compound, than stand the noise and heckling.