President Buhari Writes National Assembly On Supplementary Budget

Buhari Moves To Unpad 2018 Budget

President Muhammadu Buhari today sent an amended budget  to the National Assembly for consideration.

It will be recalled that Naija News earlier reported in June that the President said that he will send a supplementary budget due to several concerns about some of the changes made by the  lawmakers in the 2018 budget.

He also said that the supplementary/ amendment budget will solve some critical issues which he hopes “the National Assembly will be able to expeditiously consider.”

Some of the issues raised by the President include the reduction of allocation for the provision of security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools across the country by N3billion at a time when securing the students against acts of terrorism ought to be a major concern for the government.

According to the President, he signed the bill into law in order not to further slow down the pace of Nigeria’s economic recovery.

On June 20, 2018, President Buhari, signed the 2018 budget but criticised the National Assembly for reducing allocations for some projects and including thousands of projects into the budget without consultation with the Executive.

He said, “The National Assembly made cuts amounting to 347 billion Naira in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to 578 billion Naira.“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation”.

The president also that insisted he would not submit a supplementary budget to fund these priority projects. Instead, he urged the lawmakers to remove those inserted.

The President’s letter to the National Assembly reads:

“As you are aware, the 2019 general election is scheduled to be conducted early in 2019. To ensure that adequate arrangements are made for free and fair election, it has become necessary to appropriate funds to enable the relevant agencies to commence preparations.”

“INEC and the security agencies have accordingly recently submitted their requests and these have been subjected to the usual budget evaluation. The aggregate cost of the election is estimated at N254, 445, 322,600. However, in line with the prevailing fiscal I’m proposing that the sum of N164, 104, 792, 65 be provided for through virement or supplementation of the 2018 budget. I propose that the balance of N78, 340, 530, 535 mostly related to personnel allowances, fuelling and other costs not required until election proper be provided in their 2019 budget.”

The proposal for the 2019 election is as summarised below:

INEC

2018 supplementary – N143, 512, 529, 445

2019 budget – N45, 695, 015,438

Total: N189, 207, 544, 893

Office of the National Security Adviser

2018 supplementary – ₦3, 855, 500, 000

2019 budget – 426, 000, 000

Total – 4, 281, 500,000

DSS

2018 supplementary – ₦2, 903, 638, 000

2019 budget – ₦9,309,644,455

Total – N12, 213, 282, 455

NSCDC

2018 supplementary – ₦1, 845, 597, 000

2019 budget – ₦1, 727, 997, 500

Total – ₦3, 573, 534, 500

Nigeria Police

2018 supplementary – N11, 457, 417, 432

2019 budget – N19, 083, 900, 000

Total – N30, 541, 317, 432

NIS

2018 supplementary – N530, 110, 078

2019 budget – ₦2, 098,033, 142

Total – ₦2, 628, 143, 320

Total amount (for 2019 election)

2018 supplementary – N164, 104, 792, 065

2019 budget – N78, 314, 530, 535

Total – N242, 445, 322, 600

“You will also recall that when I signed the 2018 appropriation act, I indicated the need for reinstatement of certain cuts made to certain critical projects provided in the original executive bill. I’m therefore submitting for your consideration the reinstatement of most of the most critical of such cuts totalling N67, 742, 216, 150 which are summarised in page one.”

“The total amount required to be provided for in the 2018 budget for the 2019 general election and to restore the identified critical projects to the amount earlier proposed is therefore N228, 854, 800, 250.”

“Implementing a budget of N9.12 trillion for 2018 would be extremely challenging and therefore, I do not consider it expedient to propose a further increase to the size of the 2018 expenditure framework to fund these very important and critical expenditure items.”

“Accordingly, I invite the distinguished senate to consider, in the national interest, relocating some of the funds appropriated for the new projects which were inserted into the 2018 budget proposal totalling N 578, 319, 951, 904 to cover the sum of N228, 854, 800, 205 required as noted above.”

“A schedule sitting out a comprehensive list of these inserted projects is attached to this letter for ease of your consideration.”

“Further to the above, kindly find attached a supplementary budget and virement proposal for your consideration.”

“While hoping that this request will expeditious consideration of the distinguished senate, please accept, Mr Senate President, the assurances of my highest consideration.”

Yours sincerely,

Muhammadu Buhari