| Reps reject request for
virement of 2010 budget
From JAMES OJO, Abuja
Wednesday,
March 9, 2011
Barely 22 days to the March 31 deadline of the 2010 budget, President
Goodluck Jonathan yesterday asked for virement of allocations to
the Ministries of Power, Defence and Aviation from the House of
Representatives. However, the request suffered a setback as the
House could not decide on the letter.
Instead, Speaker Dimeji Bankole called on the Chairman of Appropriation
Committee, Ayo Adeseun to respond.
Adeseun faulted the request, saying that the timing was wrong, and
that there was no need for any virement, adding that it should have
been included in the 2011 estimate.
According to him, there was a fresh request to add another N200
billion to the 2011 budget from the Budget Office, which, he noted,
was part of the reasons for the late passage of the budget. He also
informed the House that the committee’s work on the 2011 budget
was hampered by the refusal of the 31 revenue-generating agencies
to submit their financial outlay for perusal.
The 31 agencies including the NNPC, CBN and the NPA were required
by Section 21 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to lay the estimates
before the National Assembly for appropriation. Mr. Igo Aguma, member
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Rivers State in his comment
berated the management of the NNPC for frustrating the House by
refusing to submit its revenue and expenditure profile to the House
as resolved.
Instead of complying with the directives of the National Assembly,
the chairman of Gas Committee accused NNPC of diverting attention
to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
He noted that NNPC had provided over 30 different versions of the
PIB through amendments and delayed further works on the Bill by
proposing another adjustment which was yet to be forwarded.
Former Minority Leader in the House, Alhaji Ali Ndume urged the
committee to concentrate on the passage of the 2011 Budget and forget
about the request for virement.
Virement is a process of moving budgetary allocations from subheads
where the application may not be of much importance to others that
required critical attention.
The president in the letter read by the Speaker Dimeji Bankole noted
that virement had become necessary “in order to augment the
shortfall in the completion of rehabilitation and repair of power
plants, as well as identified shortfalls in some key parastatals
in the aviation sector.”
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