No going back on works, other ministries allocations’ cut –N’Assembly

The National Assembly, on Thursday, insisted that it had the
power to tamper with allocations in the budget.

It also maintained that the Minister of Works, Power and
Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), told Nigerians “half truths”
on the financing status of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the
Second Niger Bridge.

Fashola had, last week, raised the alarm over the insertion of
projects outside the purview of his ministry in the 2017
Appropriation Act by the National Assembly.

The minister said it was unfair to the executive arm of
government for the inclusion of such projects after public hearings
on the budget and defence of the fiscal estimates by the
ministries.

The House of Representatives justified the National Assembly’s
decision to slash the budget of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway from
N31bn to N10bn and that of the 2nd Niger Bridge from N15bn to
N10bn.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr.
Abdulrazak Namdas, disagreed with the minister that there was no
existing Public Private Partnership funding agreement for the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Namdas, in an interview with journalists in Abuja, alleged that
the main cause of Fashola’s anger with the National Assembly was
the decision of the legislature to remove the N20bn the minister
proposed as “contingencies” in the 2017 budget.

The Rep, who is also a member of the House Committee on Works,
told journalists that by the minister’s latest statement, the
government was exploring the option of using a consortium of banks
to raise an amount like “a loan.”

He stated, “So, even if he says there is no PPP, but there is
something like a loan by a consortium of banks, what do you make of
that?

“Since he is not sure, we stand on our ground that there is a
PPP in place and that the National Assembly acted right by
re-distributing the money to the roads in the country, including
South-West states.”

In 2016 specifically, Namdas disclosed that the National
Assembly appropriated N40bn for the road, out of which only N26bn
was successfully utilised.

“The other N14bn was not released. It then means that even if we
gave them the whole N31bn, there is no guarantee that they will
release it. The National Assembly acted from a position of
experience,” he added

On the 2nd Niger Bridge, Namdas said the reason the money was
not released by the government was that the budget was passed late
and signed “late” into law in May 2016.

He stated, “When we said the same money (N12bn) was returned in
2017, we were referring to the government’s excuse for not
releasing the money in 2016.

“If in 2016, you said the budget was late in May, and you didn’t
work with the money; this year’s budget was signed in June. This
means that they will not use the money.

“There is an issue of capacity that we observed; that was why we
took N5bn from the money and allocated it to other roads in the
South-East, leaving N7bn.

Namdas said members were surprised that the ministry would keep
N20bn in the budget as “contingencies”, but chose to propose only
N12bn for the 2nd Niger Bridge.

“The provision for contingencies was found only in Fashola’s
ministry and the fact that we removed that money is where the anger
is. We sourced another N30bn and added that N21bn, bringing it to
N50bn, which was distributed to 15 other roads in the country,” he
added.

Namdas stated that so long as the executive did not acknowledge
the role of the legislature as “having the power of appropriation
in a democracy,” there would always be frictions between the two
arms.

When asked what would be the way forward since the cuts in the
votes of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the 2nd Niger Bridge had
generated controversies, Namdas said the solution was to implement
the budget as passed by the National Assembly.

He, however, said the only available window for a review would
be by “virement.”

Namdas said, “Except they can come by way of virement, there is
nothing else to be done. Even the 2016 budget, it was reviewed at
some point. So, that virement option is there.”

Also, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public
Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, who spoke to one of our
correspondents on the telephone on Wednesday night, insisted that
the legislators had constitutional backing on the upward review of
the budget.

“Even as he (Fashola) is claiming that I was not at the meeting.
I don’t have to be at the meeting; when my colleagues are there,
they are there on behalf of all of us. We stand by our words and we
still have a response to him,” Sabi-Abdullahi stated.

Although the Senate’s spokesman did not state when the lawmakers
would respond to the minister’s criticism, there were indications
that the issue might be raised in the upper chamber when they
resume from recess on Tuesday next week.

The National Assembly, on Thursday, insisted that it had the
power to tamper with allocations in the budget.

It also maintained that the Minister of Works, Power and
Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), told Nigerians “half truths”
on the financing status of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the
Second Niger Bridge.

Fashola had, last week, raised the alarm over the insertion of
projects outside the purview of his ministry in the 2017
Appropriation Act by the National Assembly.

The minister said it was unfair to the executive arm of
government for the inclusion of such projects after public hearings
on the budget and defence of the fiscal estimates by the
ministries.

The House of Representatives justified the National Assembly’s
decision to slash the budget of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway from
N31bn to N10bn and that of the 2nd Niger Bridge from N15bn to
N10bn.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr.
Abdulrazak Namdas, disagreed with the minister that there was no
existing Public Private Partnership funding agreement for the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Namdas, in an interview with journalists in Abuja, alleged that
the main cause of Fashola’s anger with the National Assembly was
the decision of the legislature to remove the N20bn the minister
proposed as “contingencies” in the 2017 budget.

The Rep, who is also a member of the House Committee on Works,
told journalists that by the minister’s latest statement, the
government was exploring the option of using a consortium of banks
to raise an amount like “a loan.”

He stated, “So, even if he says there is no PPP, but there is
something like a loan by a consortium of banks, what do you make of
that?

“Since he is not sure, we stand on our ground that there is a
PPP in place and that the National Assembly acted right by
re-distributing the money to the roads in the country, including
South-West states.”

In 2016 specifically, Namdas disclosed that the National
Assembly appropriated N40bn for the road, out of which only N26bn
was successfully utilised.

“The other N14bn was not released. It then means that even if we
gave them the whole N31bn, there is no guarantee that they will
release it. The National Assembly acted from a position of
experience,” he added

On the 2nd Niger Bridge, Namdas said the reason the money was
not released by the government was that the budget was passed late
and signed “late” into law in May 2016.

He stated, “When we said the same money (N12bn) was returned in
2017, we were referring to the government’s excuse for not
releasing the money in 2016.

“If in 2016, you said the budget was late in May, and you didn’t
work with the money; this year’s budget was signed in June. This
means that they will not use the money.

“There is an issue of capacity that we observed; that was why we
took N5bn from the money and allocated it to other roads in the
South-East, leaving N7bn.

Namdas said members were surprised that the ministry would keep
N20bn in the budget as “contingencies”, but chose to propose only
N12bn for the 2nd Niger Bridge.

“The provision for contingencies was found only in Fashola’s
ministry and the fact that we removed that money is where the anger
is. We sourced another N30bn and added that N21bn, bringing it to
N50bn, which was distributed to 15 other roads in the country,” he
added.

Namdas stated that so long as the executive did not acknowledge
the role of the legislature as “having the power of appropriation
in a democracy,” there would always be frictions between the two
arms.

When asked what would be the way forward since the cuts in the
votes of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the 2nd Niger Bridge had
generated controversies, Namdas said the solution was to implement
the budget as passed by the National Assembly.

He, however, said the only available window for a review would
be by “virement.”

Namdas said, “Except they can come by way of virement, there is
nothing else to be done. Even the 2016 budget, it was reviewed at
some point. So, that virement option is there.”

Also, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public
Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, who spoke to one of our
correspondents on the telephone on Wednesday night, insisted that
the legislators had constitutional backing on the upward review of
the budget.

“Even as he (Fashola) is claiming that I was not at the meeting.
I don’t have to be at the meeting; when my colleagues are there,
they are there on behalf of all of us. We stand by our words and we
still have a response to him,” Sabi-Abdullahi stated.

Although the Senate’s spokesman did not state when the lawmakers
would respond to the minister’s criticism, there were indications
that the issue might be raised in the upper chamber when they
resume from recess on Tuesday next week.