FG to sack workers
Budget amendment
… As Senate dumps Reps in face-off with Jonathan
From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja
Fresh indications emerged at the weekend that the Senate may have dumped the House of Representatives in National Assembly’s face-off with the Presidency over amendment of the 2013 budget.
Daily Sun exclusively gathered last Friday, that an agreement had been brokered between the Presidency and the Senate which culminated in the U-turn in the Upper Legislative Chamber and a possible lay-off of federal civil servants in 2014.
Hitherto, federal lawmakers were on the war-path with the Presidency over requests to amend the N4.987 trillion 2013 Appropriation Act.
But Daily Sun investigations revealed that the lawmakers were angry that rather than prioritise areas of amendment in the budget, the Presidency brought “an entirely new budget which is N152 billion higher than the N4.987 trillion harmonized budget passed by the two chambers.
“Upon close scrutiny, we discovered that the first correspondence to us showed that instead of amending, the Presidency wanted an entirely new budget, while stylishly rejecting the one we passed,” a source said.
A breakdown of the amendment sought by the Presidency showed that statutory transfers is now N388, 063,000,000 as against N387,976,000,000 (an increase of N87 billion) passed by the National Assembly on December 20, 2012.
The recurrent capital expenditure had been increased from N2,386,024,770,349 to N2,418,976,391,494 (an increase of N32,951,621,145) while the capital budget was cut from N1,621,455,655,252 to N1,588,578,805,197 (N32,876,850,055) making a total increase of N152,828,471, 200.
The National Assembly rejected the first amendment proposal. The second time when the Executive asked for the review, a bulkier budget was presented for amendment.
The National Assembly source told Daily Sun that lawmakers were peeved that, “having passed the 2013 budget with just two volumes, the Presidency returned three volumes of the budget to us. To us, that meant they wanted us to re-work the entire budget which we flatly rejected.”
The matter was reportedly resolved when the National Assembly went on its annual June recess and officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office reportedly met with the Appropriation Committees of both houses and the areas needing urgent amendments in the budget were agreed upon.
On June 26, the President forwarded the prioritized areas of amendment to the National Assembly, making it the third version within three months. This time around, besides adjusting the recurrent expenditure to allow government meet its obligations in terms of paying workers’ salaries, the National Assembly will concentrate more on capital budget cuts.
Beyond agreeing on the amendments, however, it was gathered that the Executive would still have to sack some workers in the federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Based on that agreement, the National Assembly slashed salaries payment to some MDAs.
“We are in a quandary now because the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister has already rallied organized labour and the civil servants behind her. They have been told that it’s the National Assembly that cut their salaries and even the September deadline is too far for them to run out of funds to pay salaries.
“The Federal Government balked on carrying out the exercise in 2013, after reaching an agreement with the National Assembly that it reduces its recurrent expenditure by shedding weight in the MDAs this year. But the problem of ghost workers in the federal civil service still persist. We heard that ghost workers have been weeded out in just one third of the MDAs, while work is still on-going in the remaining two-thirds of the ministries..”
“As things stand today (Friday), Senate has agreed to go ahead with the amendments, return the salaries and also, effect cuts in the N1.621 trillion capital budget for the year. The priority areas to cut in the capital budget are already spelt out in just one volume which is already before the Appropriation Committee,” a source said.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emodi, believes the present impasse can be resolved “through peace, patience and dialogue.”
Senator Emodi was emphatic that, “it is important for Nigerians to know that there is a budget already being implemented. The only thing is that the Executive wants amendments in some priority areas and this will be done through dialogue. There is no discord between the two arms of government,” Emodi reiterated.
… As Senate dumps Reps in face-off with Jonathan
From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja
Fresh indications emerged at the weekend that the Senate may have dumped the House of Representatives in National Assembly’s face-off with the Presidency over amendment of the 2013 budget.
Daily Sun exclusively gathered last Friday, that an agreement had been brokered between the Presidency and the Senate which culminated in the U-turn in the Upper Legislative Chamber and a possible lay-off of federal civil servants in 2014.
Hitherto, federal lawmakers were on the war-path with the Presidency over requests to amend the N4.987 trillion 2013 Appropriation Act.
But Daily Sun investigations revealed that the lawmakers were angry that rather than prioritise areas of amendment in the budget, the Presidency brought “an entirely new budget which is N152 billion higher than the N4.987 trillion harmonized budget passed by the two chambers.
“Upon close scrutiny, we discovered that the first correspondence to us showed that instead of amending, the Presidency wanted an entirely new budget, while stylishly rejecting the one we passed,” a source said.
A breakdown of the amendment sought by the Presidency showed that statutory transfers is now N388, 063,000,000 as against N387,976,000,000 (an increase of N87 billion) passed by the National Assembly on December 20, 2012.
The recurrent capital expenditure had been increased from N2,386,024,770,349 to N2,418,976,391,494 (an increase of N32,951,621,145) while the capital budget was cut from N1,621,455,655,252 to N1,588,578,805,197 (N32,876,850,055) making a total increase of N152,828,471, 200.
The National Assembly rejected the first amendment proposal. The second time when the Executive asked for the review, a bulkier budget was presented for amendment.
The National Assembly source told Daily Sun that lawmakers were peeved that, “having passed the 2013 budget with just two volumes, the Presidency returned three volumes of the budget to us. To us, that meant they wanted us to re-work the entire budget which we flatly rejected.”
The matter was reportedly resolved when the National Assembly went on its annual June recess and officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office reportedly met with the Appropriation Committees of both houses and the areas needing urgent amendments in the budget were agreed upon.
On June 26, the President forwarded the prioritized areas of amendment to the National Assembly, making it the third version within three months. This time around, besides adjusting the recurrent expenditure to allow government meet its obligations in terms of paying workers’ salaries, the National Assembly will concentrate more on capital budget cuts.
Beyond agreeing on the amendments, however, it was gathered that the Executive would still have to sack some workers in the federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Based on that agreement, the National Assembly slashed salaries payment to some MDAs.
“We are in a quandary now because the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister has already rallied organized labour and the civil servants behind her. They have been told that it’s the National Assembly that cut their salaries and even the September deadline is too far for them to run out of funds to pay salaries.
“The Federal Government balked on carrying out the exercise in 2013, after reaching an agreement with the National Assembly that it reduces its recurrent expenditure by shedding weight in the MDAs this year. But the problem of ghost workers in the federal civil service still persist. We heard that ghost workers have been weeded out in just one third of the MDAs, while work is still on-going in the remaining two-thirds of the ministries..”
“As things stand today (Friday), Senate has agreed to go ahead with the amendments, return the salaries and also, effect cuts in the N1.621 trillion capital budget for the year. The priority areas to cut in the capital budget are already spelt out in just one volume which is already before the Appropriation Committee,” a source said.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emodi, believes the present impasse can be resolved “through peace, patience and dialogue.”
Senator Emodi was emphatic that, “it is important for Nigerians to know that there is a budget already being implemented. The only thing is that the Executive wants amendments in some priority areas and this will be done through dialogue. There is no discord between the two arms of government,” Emodi reiterated.
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