By Henry Umoru, Emman Ovuakporie & Levinus Nwabughiogu

ABUJA—INSTEAD of blaming lawmakers for delaying passage of budgets and thereby delaying execution of projects, some members of the National Assembly have advised President Muhammadu Buhari and the Executive Arm of government to follow due process and present budget proposals on time.

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budget

In separate chats with Vanguard, yesterday, many lawmakers from both the Senate and House Representatives apart from Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, picked holes in President Buhari’s comment that the legislators’ delayed passage of budget was hampering completion of projects across the country.

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President not conversant with budgeting processes —Senator Urhoghide

Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, PDP, Edo South, said President Buhari does not understand the processes and procedures involved in the passage of budget.

Urging the President not to trust or believe all that his subordinates in the executive arm tell him, Urhogide said:   “The President is not too conversant with the processes and procedure in budgeting. A situation where budget proposal comes before MTEF and FSP is putting the cart before the horse.

This was what happened to the 2018 budget. The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 is very clear on the processes and procedures.’’

Buhari’s assertion not a true reflection of the situation – Bwacha

Deputy Senate Minority Leader, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha,  and Chairman, South-East Senate Caucus, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South) spoke in like manner and disagreed with the president.

While Senator Bwacha simply said, “that is not a true reflection of the situation,” Senator Abaribe said there is “nothing new in President Buhari’s accusation. He always blames someone else for his actions.”

I agree with Buhari – Omo-Agege

However, Senator Omo- Agege, APC, Delta Central, concurred with Buhari’s comments saying: “I agree with Mr. President. The motivation is clear: Frustrate Mr President’s budget to deprive him of additional infrastructural developmental projects to campaign with. This appears to be the major assignment given to Senator (Bukola) Saraki and, indeed, the only value addition to the (Alhaji) Atiku (Abubakr) presidential campaign where he doubles as director-general. It is time to set him free so he can have enough time for the Atiku campaign while enthroning an APC senator as Senate President, who would put national interest first and help Mr. President succeed.”

Reps disagree with Buhari

Some members of the House of Representatives also picked holes in Buhari’s allegation, which they described as uncalled for, adding that if the president’s appointees meet up with deadlines there won’t be any delay in budget passage.

NASS is not a rubber stamp- Ogun

Deputy Chairman House of Representatives Committee on FCT, Rep Sergius Ogun, said: “What effort did the president and his appointees put to ensure that the MDAs come to defend their submissions? When you submit a new budget you are required to come before the parliament to defend how the funds released for the previous budget was utilized and to justify the new request.

‘If those that bring the estimates don’t come to speak to any of these issues the parliament would have become a rubber stamp, if the document is returned approved to them without proper scrutiny in line with the laws of the land and that will be a huge disservice to our country.

He lacks proper understanding of budgeting processes – Chinda

To Rep Kingsley Chinda, chairman House Committee on Public Accounts, the president appears to lack a proper understanding of how the budget processes work.

He said: “He lacks proper understanding of budgeting procedure. The 2019 budget cannot be passed earlier than April 2019. Buhari has not sent MTEF for approval. It is the approved MTEF that the budget will be based on. If MTEF gets considered this month, budget proposal will come thereafter, that is in December or January, 2019 and allow three months (90 days) for consideration and passage.”

Buhari, ministers must defend budgets on time – Nwokocha

Also, Darlington Nwokocha, who represents Isiala Ngwa North/Isiala Ngwa South Federal Constituency of Abia State, said: “The legislature is not the originator of any government budget all over the world. Rather in line with the principle of separation of powers they scrutinise and appropriate. This is a statutory procedure.

‘’The executive has started the blame games to save face. It’s unfortunate that the executive always fails to present the budget early enough and when they bring it they expect a waiver of the statutory processes which is wrong and unhealthy to a nation. The bill must be laid by the president on the floor, be referred to the Appropriation committee, and the originating MDAs must cone to defend what they presented.  This is the point the executive runs away.’’