There are apprehensions in Plateau State that the latest report of the House of Assembly Appropriation Committee may stir controversy between the executive and the legislature, or among the legislatures.
Citizens of Plateau State have been left in the dark as to the situation regarding the 2016 Budget estimates that is pending before the state lawmakers since December last year. Citizens are worried that the process of approving the budget is getting prolonged and may delay the works of the new APC government in the state.
Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, had in December 31st, 2015, presented a budget estimate of N154 billion to the House for approval. It was tagged “Budget of Hope and Rescue” to bear the slogan of the APC government, which prides itself as the “Government on Rescue Mission”
The budget was later committed to the House Committee on Appropriation and the committee sliced the budget to N146 billion.
A lot of citizens in the state are worried that the budget is unnecessarily delayed by the lawmakers. This is perhaps because instead of hearing news of the passage of the budget by the House, they were told that the budget has been reduced drastically by the lawmakers. Instead of the passage, the House Committee only submitted its reports to the House.
In the report, submitted by the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Jacob Kassam, the committee recommended a reduction of the budget from N154billion to N146billion. Critics have alleged that the report is another round of delay in the passage of the budget as the entire House will also need to take time to study the report of the Appropriation Committee.
This is happening when lawmakers of neighboring Nasarawa State increased the budget estimates of the state by N1billion, from what their governor presented to them for approval.
According to Kassam, “The committees were compelled to cut down expenditure based on the impact of the current economy resulting from the falling price of oil, with negative consequences on our earnings as a nation that is so heavily dependent on foreign earnings from oil”.
“By virtue of the power invested in the House in section 100 sub-section (1 and 2) of the Constitution of Nigeria and also in compliance with order 11 (6a) b (i and ii) of the House Standing Rules, the budget which was committed to the Appropriation Committee on January 20th 2016, stipulates that all standing committees of the House shall, for this purpose, disintegrate to sub-committees where agencies under their jurisdictions will defend their proposals.”
He said the goal of the budget is to reduce human sufferings by uplifting the quality of life of the people.
“2016 budget is zero-based due to the drastic fall in revenue from the Federation Account and the state government is faced with looking inwards in order to boost revenue profile from other sources”.
The House has resolved to look into the report of the Committee on Appropriation before passing the 2016 budget. It is not clear if the reduction of the budget size will go down well with the state governor, just as it is not clear if the House plenary will accept the reduction. But there are apprehensions that the report of the Appropriation Committee may stir controversy between the executive and the legislature, or among the legislatures. Sources say the expected controversy may however be avoided if stakeholders show understanding and tolerance.
Meanwhile, the people are asking, when will this budget be passed?
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