CONTROVERSY continues to trail the National Assembly’s N128 billion budget for 2020 with some senators holding sensitive committees claiming ignorance of details of the budget.
Before the National Assembly proceeded on Christmas and New Year break last December, revelation of N37billion appropriated for renovation of certain buildings in the National Assembly complex had raised dust in the country.
Some aggrieved senators, who lost out in the power game of fresh funds allocated to their favoured colleagues for constituency projects in the final 2020 budget jacked up from N10.33 trillion to N10.594 trillion had threatened to petition President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of his presidential assent of the budget.
Findings revealed that the aggrieved senators are still belching smoke, complaining over the details of the National Assembly budget.
Speaking on the development, Senator Ibrahim Hadejia representing Jigawa North East, who incidentally is Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, said only the Senate Committee on Appropriation could give detailed account of the National Assembly budget.
He said, “The N128b for the National Assembly, the details are never there. I don’t know. I cannot give you details about budget which I am not privy to and I was not part of those who put it together.
“This is something that you need to forward your question to the appropriate quarters. You can meet the appropriation committee because they know what goes into where.’’
Acting chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Godiya Akwashiki also said the Clerk of the National Assembly and the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, knew the details.
He said:’’ The Clerk to the National Assembly is supposed to be in charge of that. Being the accounting officer of the National Assembly, he is in the best position to give the details. The disbursement of funds for the capital component of the budget is the duty of the National Assembly bureaucracy.
“We don’t execute capital projects as senators; we only collect our salaries and allowances. We don’t award contracts neither do we determine the contractors that would get the jobs,” he said.
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