Virement, Ali Ndume and the law

THE Senate on Tuesday approved the request for President Muhammadu Buhari for the virement of the sum of N180 billion in the 2016 budget.

It looked like a routine exercise because it has been a recurring incident for most of this Republic.  Virement is simply an act by which a budgeted fund is moved from one subhead to another for the purpose of execution. It requires parliamentary approval one the Appropriation Act comes into effect.

That was exactly what President Buhari requested in his October 27, 2016 letter to the National Assembly wherein he asked the lawmakers to effect the virement of N180.8 billion from the Special Intervention Fund approved in the 2016 budget.

President Buhari had requested the sum of N180.8 billion from the 2016 budget to cover certain shortfalls in recurrent and capital expenditure in some sectors. He said in the letter of request that the letter became mandatory due to a number of reasons including: shortfalls in provisions for personnel costs; inadequate provision ab initio for some items like the amnesty programme; continuous requirement to sustain the war against insurgency and depreciation in the value of the naira. The president had requested a total sum of N14.208billion as capital component of the virement and N166.630billion as recurrent component.

In approving the proposal, the Senate increased the proposal by N33 billion, while earmarking the sum of N39.208 billion for capital component of the virement and N169.613billion for recurrent component. The lawmakers also approved an extra N5billion for sustainable development goals in the Ministry of Housing based on special request during the consideration by the Senate.

A further breakdown of the expenditure items in the virement shows that the Public Service Wage Adjustment (PSWA) will gulp N71.8billion, contigency in the Service Wide Vote will gulp N1.2billion, margin for increase in cost (N2billion), Amnesty programme (N35billion); Internal operations of the Armed Forces (N5.2billion); Operation Lafiya Dole (13.933billion); NYSC (N19.792 billion); and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Missions) N16.349billion. While there was no contention as to the necessity for government to incur those costs, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu however raised a fundamental constitutional question during the approval process.

He reminded his colleagues that having searched through the constitution, he could not see the word virement and that as such the whole gamut of virements from the budget is unconstitutional.

According to Ekweremadu: “Though virement has been made in our budget implementation on yearly basis but there is no room for the practice in the constitution which only provides for supplementary budget in situations like this.” Senate Leader, Ali Ndume however countered Ekweremadu declaring that the Deputy Senate President was wrong to have pointed out that anomaly since he did not do so when he served under the previous administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ndume’s dismissal of the constitutional point of order by Ekweremadu however runs counter to the principles of law the chamber is supposed to uphold. It can only be wrong for the Senate Leader to reduce a matter as fundamental and capable of causing a constitutional mishap to partisan politics.

As the Leader of the Nigerian Senate, he needs to assume the role not just as a politician but as well as a statesman.

But Senate President Bukola Saraki moved to save the day. He told the chamber that Ekweremadu was right and that what the Senate did was only tantamount to “Doctrine of Necessity.” According to him, the Deputy Senate President was correct in his observations but that the virements became necessary in order to help stimulate an almost moribund economy.

He said: “I think your observation as far as the constitution is concerned is well noted. I think we are all fully aware of that and that is why I cannot continue to thank my colleagues so much in the way we have been addressing the issue of the economy and we are not looking at it whichever party we are or whatever side we belong.

“If we stick to the constitution you are very right and is part of our support and cooperation to the executive, to Nigerians to move things forward. As you rightly said this should come as a supplementary budget but in part of trying to make this move and incorporate it and ensuring that we give the support and the executive should also take note.”

The Constitutional Point of Order by Ekweremadu should serve as an eye opener for the Senate and the House of Representatives going forward on the handling of virements. While the Constitution provides for Supplementary Budgets, governments after the other have invented the short cut. This is the time to correct the anomaly.