By SaharaReporters, New York
Although President Goodluck
Jonathan has yet to present the
2013 budget estimates to the
National Assembly, the federal
government has started cashing
in, anyway.
The Minister of Lands, Housing
and Urban Development, Ms. Ama
Pepple, made this clear today in a
briefing which followed the
weekly Federal Executive Council
meeting at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja. Also at the briefing were
the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity,
Dr. Reuben Abati; and the
Minister of Mines and Solid
Mineral Development, Mr.
Mohammed Sada.
She said that money from the
budget is part of the N1.5bn
which the government approved
for the completion of Zik's
Mausoleum. The project, which is
being built at Onitsha, is being
constructed in the memory of Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe.
“The Federal Executive Council
approved the award of contract
for the completion of Zik’s
Mausoleum, a Mausoleum in
memory of our first President. It
was given out for a sum of N1,
496,531,483 with a completion
of 13 months.”
Ms. Pepple recalled that the
project was originally under the
Presidency, where it stalled and
had to be cancelled three times
before it was ultimately
transferred to Lands and
Housing Development in 2010
when it became a full-fledged
Ministry, for completion.
"In this year’s budget we have
N530million in the 2012 budget
which we are going to start off
the project with and we have
also put N1billion in the budget
for next year and if that is given
to us we should be able to
complete it within the time
stipulated,” she said.
She described the project as a
national monument. “It is
something we will want to
complete before we celebrate
our centenary in 2014. So we are
very hopeful that we will get the
needed funds and the Ministry is
quite ready to ensure that we get
value for money for the job that
we are giving out."
Problems over budget
manipulation and non-
implementation have recently
complicated relations between
the executive and legislative arms
of the government. In mid-July,
the House of Representatives
threatened to impeach President
Goodluck Jonathan if the 2012
budget is not properly
implemented by September
2011, a deadline which has just
passed. Members of the House
complained that the executive
was not implementing the
budget as approved.
The Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) subsequently sided with
the House at that time, saying
that Mr. Jonathan was guilty of
errors in the implementation of
the budget which could lead to
his impeachment, but that the
party would intervene to ensure
he stayed in office.
Speaking through the Deputy
National Chairman of the National
Working Committee, Dr. Sam Jaja,
the PDP said that members of the
House of Representatives,
including its majority PDP
members, had a genuine case for
the impeachment threat.
Days later, the Minister of Finance
and Coordinating Minister for the
Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, begged the
Representatives, through State
House correspondents, saying
that President Jonathan would
not be able to meet their
demands by the deadline.
“I think the point is that Mr.
President is determined to
implement this budget as fully as
possible and therefore we will be
moving towards the figure of as
full implementation as we can by
the end of the year because the
budget was made for the whole
year,” she said.
With that background, the
information that, on top of the
2012 mess the executive has
gone off on its own to
commence implementation of a
budget that has not even been
presented to the National
Assembly, may see further
deterioration in the relationship
between both arms of the
government.

www.saharareporters.com/news-page/fg-begins-spending-inexistent-2013-budget

This is why i maintain that SR is a Rumour peddling channel and not a Newspaper in the proper. How does 'we have #530million in this yr's budget...while we have put #1billion in next yr's budget' requird to complete d project, mean that govt has already startd using nx yr's budget........it is just astonishing that such complete cluelessness of d basis of d Budgeting process wud be some publicly shown. Shame *shm*