Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
| Dr. Goodluck Jonathan |
Different ministries have made it a habit of asking for more money from the various National Assembly committees supervising them during the defence of their budget proposals.
The problem stems from the Federal Ministry of Finance’s practice of slashing their budget proposals before they are submitted to the National Assembly for approval. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, was at the Senate last week to seek more funds for some capital projects.
He said while he proposed N81.8bn in 2011, the ministry slashed it to N44.1bn. He, therefore, asked the Senate Committee on FCT to provide more money for the ministry to execute its developmental projects.
But the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), told the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters that Jonathan had directed all cabinet members to desis from asking for more funds from the National Assembly.
He was responding to questions from members of the committee on the reasons why the ministry’s capital project was only N313m whereas its total recurrent was put at N11.68bn.
The committee had suggested an increase in the capital votes but Adoke declined, saying that he would rather make do with N313m, in line with the directive of the President. Adoke put the total budget of the ministry and its agencies at N11.99bn, with the personnel cost fixed at N5.53bn and the overhead at N6.15bn.
Source:Punch
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