Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to save the country the national embarrassment being caused by the budget he presented to the National Assembly by formally withdrawing and representing it.
The governor in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Pubic Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said: “The President should admit that there were avoidable errors in the budget and since he is human and not immune to errors, he should simply do the needful by presenting a new and credible budget to the National Assembly.”
Governor Fayose described the revelation by Health Minister, Isaac Adewole, that the proposal drawn up by the ministry and submitted to the budget office had been doctored and that “foreign” appropriations, different from what was submitted, had been sneaked in as the height of national embarrassment.
While addressing the Senate Committee on Health during its budget defence session on Monday, Professor Adewole had stunned senators when he said details of the budget were not what he submitted to the Senate.
Fayose said: “Last week, we were told that the Senate discovered a sum of N10 billion questionably smuggled into the budget of the Ministry of Education for an allegedly questionable sub-head.
“Also, we were told of the existence of a budget mafia in the Presidency that was said to be responsible for the embarrassing allocations in the budget.
“Before now, we were told that a total of N3.87 billion was allocated for capital projects at the State House Clinic alone, over N700 million more than capital allocation to all the 16 federal teaching hospitals combined.
“Now, a whole minister has come out to say that budgetary provision for his ministry was forged!
“If under a President that says he is fighting corruption, the budget of the country got missing and we are now being told that the budget being considered by the National Assembly has been forged, one cannot but be afraid that there is possibility of Nigeria being forged one day, after the original must have gone missing.”
Budget well structured, says Ministry official
The Ministry of Budget and Planning says that the 2016 Budget proposals submitted to the National Assembly (NASS) by President Muhammadu Buhari, were very well structured and targeted at reviving the economy, notwithstanding the fall in the oil price.
The ministry was reacting to different opinions trailing the 2016 budget proposal. It said that some errors were not unexpected in the changeover to the new Zero Based Budget, ZBB, approach.
In a statement, issued yesterday by the Director of Information, Mr. Charles Dafe, the Ministry said the Budget staff in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, as well as those handling budget issues in all Ministries and Extra Ministerial Agencies (MDAs) were already grappling to master the technicalities in the ZBB template to address all irregularities in the budget.
Save us this shame by withdrawing budget - Fayose tells Buhari
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for dropping your response, there are other interesting news on the page too