President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday appealed to members of the National Assembly to desist from approving the budgets for Government Owned Enterprises without undergoing proper protocols.
The N20.51 trillion budget dubbed ‘Budget of Fiscal Consolidation and Transition’ was presented by the president and is the last he will present before his tenure elapses
The president had earlier in the year lamented that the provisions made for about 10,733 projects had been reduced, while 6,576 new projects were introduced into the budget by the National Assembly. He also stated the inclusion of the new provisions totalling N36.59 billion for NASS’s projects in the Service-Wide Vote negates the principles of separation of powers and financial autonomy of the different arms of government.
Buhari warned that appropriation for GOEs in the 2023 budget must be returned to the executive after due approval by the relevant committees
“I would like to implore the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure that the budget I lay here today, which includes those of the GOEs, be returned to the Presidency when passed,” Buhari said
“The current practice where some committees of the National Assembly purport to pass budgets for GOEs, which are at variance with the budgets sanctioned by me, and communicate such directly to the MDAs is against the rules and needs to stop.”
A breakdown of the budget shows that N8.27 trillion was set aside for non-debt recurrent costs, N5.35 trillion for capital expenditure, N1.1 trillion for overhead costs and N744.11 billion was earmarked for statutory transfers.
