Besides the budget, underlining currents
relating to the National Assembly Budget and
Research Office, investigations into the Crude
Oil Swap of the former administration, the Rail
Contract scam, constituency funds for House
members among other issues would also be
of interest in the next few days.

During the recess, the lawmakers engaged
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
of government in a race against time aimed at
concluding all committee work on the 2016
appropriation bill.

However, awaiting the Bauchi-born lawmaker
and Speaker of the 8th House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara are many
issues ranging from controversies surrounding
the budget proposal as they concern various
MDAs. At issue is the over bloated personnel
costs and the allegation of the substation of
the budget proposals of the MDAs as
presented by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The discoveries by lawmakers scrutinising the
MDAs’ budgets of ugly attempts at short
changing the country is now being said to
have been the norm over the years with
insinuations of the continuing entrenchment
of a budget mafia in the budget making
institutions of the Federal Government.

Indeed, never before had a budget defence
exercise thrown up so much dirt in the
nation’s Civil Service as now.

The discoveries of seeming scam in the
budgets of the MDAs has also forced the
legislature to abandon its earlier set deadline
of passing the 2016 budget on 25th February,
2016.

The dislocation of the timeline for the budget
announced on February 9 by the National
Assembly Joint Committees on Appropriation
headed by Senator Mohammad Danjuma Goje
and Rep Abdulmumin Jibrin respectively must
have thrown the leadership of both Houses
off-balance following their resolve to keep the
appropriation within the 12 month fiscal
calendar without having to stretch deep into
another year by way of implementation.

Senator Danjuma Goje had told newsmen that
the decision to botch the deadline became
necessary in view of the controversies
surrounding the 2016 budget proposals adding
that the National Assembly would not in the
face of public expectations and yearning for
change bring out a budget that would not be
acceptable to the public.

He said: “We are here to speak on the
ongoing processing of the 2016 budget. We
are currently working on bringing out the
clean copies of the final document. But with
current controversies surrounding the budget,
we felt that it’s necessary for us to come
here and shed light on areas on of
misunderstanding.”

“We don’t want to produce a budget that
would be thrown back to us due to
implementation difficulties or ambiguities. So
this will no longer be possible by February
25th given that even the executive has
accepted that there have been a lot of
‘padding’ in the allocations to MDAs”, Goje
said.

Jibrin reiterated the commitment of the joint
committee to producing a workable budget
that would set the tone for good governance
that Nigerians have demanded for by voting in
the current administration.

Another headache awaiting the Dogara-led
House is the often rejected National
Assembly Budget and Research Office
Establishment Bill (otherwise known as the
NABRO Bill).

The bill which has been in the works since
2003 and even passed to the executive for
assent had been returned unsigned by
successive governments for inexplicable
reasons.

The absence of NABRO has placed some
serious question mark in the competence and
credibility of the National Assembly to
appropriate money for the nation’s
government even though the power to
appropriate is derived from the constitution.

However, the legal question on the lips of
policy experts is that, by what means does
the National Assembly complement its
authority or expertise in the art of
appropriating money for the federal
government and its MDAs; bearing in mind the
absence of the Budget and Research office
that is supposed to be its backbone in budget
matters.

This development has led to the wide use of
consultants in budget making, a habit that has
been roundly condemned with claims that it
is self-serving and illegal.

NABRO could be compared to the
Congressional Budget Office in the United
States, a body that helps to guard American
legislators on the parameters being used in
preparing the budget and monitor the
implementation of Federal Government
budget.

Also of interest in the House in the coming
weeks would be the many ongoing probes
focused on Crude Oil Swap, Rail contract
Scam among many others.

One other issue before the Speaker as the
House reconvenes is the general
misconception about constituency projects.

Many have had cause to believe that the
concept of constituency projects had been ill-
motivated as it had been seen as an avenue
for lawmakers to line their pockets via
diversion of monies disbursed as quarterly
constituency allowances.


source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/as-reps-resume-today-issues-in-dogaras-house/


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