•Vow not to accept proposal if...
Written by Jacob Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel, Abuja Friday, 28 October 2011
THE House of Representatives on Thursday vowed to boycott the presentation of the 2012 budget proposal should the Minister of Finance, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala fail to honour its invitation to appraise the 2011 budget performance, just as it resolved that the budget proposal of the Federal Government must now be presented to the National Assembly three months before the commencement of the fiscal year.
The threat by the House to boycott the budget presentation followed the failure of the finance minister who was summoned to appraise the Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF), to appear before the House Committee on Appropriation but rather sent a representative.
At the appropriation committee’s meeting on Thursday, the committee told the finance minister’s representative; the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Ngana that by Monday, October 31, if the minister failed to appear physically before it to defend the MTFF document, the House would boycott the presentation of the 2012 budget.
The chairman of the committee, Honourable John Enoh, declared that, “except the Minister of Finance, Dr Okonjo-Iweala is here on Monday to defend this year’s Medium Term Fiscal Framework, you should forget about the issue of the president coming to present the 2012 Appropriation bill.”
According to him, “if she refuses to come under any excuse, we will not welcome the president and please, don’t blame us and she should not take it personal.”
Dr Ngana had earlier told the committee that the 2011 budget had scored 57 per cent in terms of implementation, with a total release of N699,459,225,802 from the capital account of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the various MDAs.
He said: “Out of the amount released so far, only N594,154,991,965 was cash backed, while the MDAs only accessed N332,071,481, 525, leaving a balance of N256,301,375.98 in the vault of the CBN”.
The compulsory mandate on the president followed a bill to that effect, sponsored by Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila which scaled through the second reading in the House after overwhelming debate in support of the move by members in order to ensure proper scrutiny and timely passage of the appropriation.
Presenting the bill entitled “a bill to alter the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, Cap. C23 laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004 to provide a definite date for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to present an appropriation bill for the next financial year to the National Assembly, 2011 (HB.114), “Honourable Gbajabiamila condemned the delay of presentation of the appropriation Bill to the National Assembly by the Executive which he said was not in the best interest of thorough legislation.
While pointing out that the late presentation of annual appropriation bill would not allow for thorough examination of the bill as expected, he lamented that, “even as we speak, the budget for 2012 has not been presented before the National Assembly.”
via Tribune
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