• Reps insist on ultimate powers over budget
DISTURBED by a possible veto of the 2013 budget by the National Assembly, the Presidency has directed the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to furnish it with legal advice on the provision of the constitution on the application of veto power.
This came as the House of Representatives said at the weekend that the ultimate power to define the actual and final size of the country's budget was with the National Assembly.
Speaking through the Chairman of its Committee on Appropriation, John Eno, at the weekend, the House ruled out the possibility of taking the Presidency to the Supreme Court on the 2013 budget bill.
Also, the Presidency yesterday explained its position on some of the contentious issues in the budget which have delayed its signing. These issues include constituency projects injected into the budget by the legislators and the reduction in the personnel estimates submitted by the Executive.
At a press conference in Abuja at the weekend, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Nwanze Okeidegbe, said that in the interim, the Executive and Legislative arms had reached an understanding on how government would continue to function pending the resolution of the contentious issues and subsequent signing into law of the budget bill by the President.
He spoke on some of the contentious areas: " I want to start by stressing that President Goodluck Jonathan wants to sign the 2013 budget as soon as possible if our discussions with the National Assembly lead to a resolution of certain key issues. Remember that the Executive submitted the budget to the NASS in October 2012. Nigerians were very happy about this because it was a refreshing difference from the delays we had got used to. We worked very hard to achieve this. So, we definitely want budget implementation to begin as soon as possible so that Nigerians can start enjoying the many benefits in the budget
"The NASS returned the budget in December 2012. Upon review by the Executive, some grey areas were identified and needed to be resolved. Since then, we have been working in partnership with the NASS to resolve the issues around the budget. The President wants the issues resolved in a manner that will protect the best interest of the Nigerian people. He supports a collaborative approach in the discussions with the National Assembly.
"We don't want the current situation surrounding the budget to degenerate into an impasse because Nigerians want results not disagreements. That is why we have asked the Attorney-General of the Federation to furnish us with legal advice on the constitutionality of a veto and its application.
"There is an issue on constituency projects which is on the table and discussion is still ongoing and it is very difficult to give a definite answer on the matter when discussions are on-going but we are making progress in reaching understanding and accommodation on the issues on the table.
"The overhead as passed by the National Assembly is higher than was submitted by the Executive and again, we are having discussion and progress is being made but not fully resolved. On capital votes, there were some re-allocations. Some went up and some went down and some were removed, thus making it difficult to implement. As a result of that, we have pointed out those areas and both the National Assembly and the Executive are discussing with a view to resolving them.
"There were differences in what the Executive submitted in the votes for personnel and what came back from the National Assembly as the votes were cut down. This has remained unresolved. It would be difficult to pay salaries with the personnel votes they passed and this may lead to industrial challenges. But as I said, we have been in discussion on it," Nwanze said further.
Insisting on the powers of the lawmakers over the budget, Eno said: "This issue has come up before. The fact is that the parliament or the National Assembly does not have any reason whatsoever to go to court to seek interpretation. We have no doubt as to what our powers are. The Executive arm is the arm of government that doubts those powers.
"Under the late Yar'Adua, we got to this point when he actually tried to request that we go jointly to approach the Supreme Court for interpretation. I remember then that our answer was that the Supreme Court would not entertain that kind of thing. Somebody will need to... One party will need to go to court. Two of us cannot go like that. Look, the issues are clear; the constitution that says that if Mr. President does not assent, that the document can become law not requiring the assent of Mr. President anymore. What it means simply is that the final power rests with the National Assembly."
Stressing further the powers of the parliament over the budget, the lawmakers said: "I think that what the House is lacking really is the will to want to do what it should do. I think that it has to do with the lingering argument on who has the powers over the budget. Whether it is the Executive, whether it is the National Assembly. And until this is resolved, perhaps this budget row will keep lingering on and on."
He, however, dismissed as false, reports that the leadership of the National Assembly used his committee to pad the 2013 budget to realize enough money for members to fund their 2015 election campaigns.
"Let me thank you very well for that question because it allows me to say whether as chairman of appropriation committee of the House, the leadership has directed me to increase the budget of any MDA or not. At least I can speak for myself even if I cannot speak for any other chairman of any committee. The talk about the leadership directing me to pad is not true because I do not have such powers. Even if those powers were there, I think for example, what we tried to do especially in the 2013 budget would have made it impossible. I have already told you that standing committees become sub-committees of appropriation committee during budget.
"When the budget comes, we give it to them to go and do. What they bring, the appropriation committee does not have the powers to change those budgets. Unless you are saying that the leadership directs those standing committees to do that padding. If it is me receiving that directive, I do not have any power to pad the budget that has been submitted to me by the standing committees. I do not have. Whatever becomes the budget is whatever the standing committees have done. So, the leadership that I find today, check, I do not think that it is that kind of leadership that would want to do so. And for me specifically, I do not have such directives. And I do not have such powers to pad any committee's budget because some members or some people in the leadership are already thinking about 2015. Anybody who is saying so, I beg you, it is not true. Do not accept it."
On the lawmakers' penchant for budgetary increase, Eno stated that the National Assembly simply attempted to help in moving funds to areas they were most required so that abandoned projects could be attended to
"If in the last three to five years, some particular projects have since been abandoned, in their wisdom, our standing committees can take some monies from other areas of the budget bill and try to make sure that they save these particular projects from their abandoned status. I do not think you are going to call this 'padding' of budget. Rather, what has happened is that work has been done on the appropriation bill by different sub-committees; the product of that has all been brought back to the appropriation committee, the appropriation committee has been able to make a bill out of it which has been passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly. And I do not think that what has been done is what is not done within the constitutional powers that I think the National Assembly has."
According to him, the current members of the National Assembly deserve commendation from Nigerians because they have observed the highest level of discipline in budget making more than the previous sessions of the assembly.
"There is too much talk about raising the size of budgets. But let us not forget that if you compare this seventh assembly to the previous assemblies, I think we deserve some praises in terms of our responsible approach and disciplined approach to the budget. Prior to the seventh assembly, if you compare the aggregate expenditure figures between what proposals the president came with and what eventually got out of the National Assembly, the difference will be at least N200 billion. Beginning from 2012 including 2013, the increase in terms of size of budgets has hovered around N50 billion."
The Guardian