You Can’t Single-handedly Introduce New Projects In 2017 Budget, Femi Falana BLASTS Lawmakers

  • June 26, 2017
  • Comments Off on You Can’t Single-handedly Introduce New Projects In 2017 Budget, Femi Falana BLASTS Lawmakers
Share on WhatsAppShare on WhatsApp Share
Femi Falana
Femi Falana

Human Rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana has lambasted the National Assembly, for inserting new projects into the 2017 Budget.

Speaking in an interview on Channels TV, the legal practitioner described the insertion as ‘totally uncalled for’, suggesting that the Executive should get the Supreme Court to settle the matter once and for all.

He said: “We have been on this game since 1999. This is about the fourth president. Every year, we have this controversy.

“It is totally uncalled for; the power of the National Assembly to tinker with the budget- we have advised the government to put this matter to rest by approaching the Supreme Court. The precious time of the nation has been wasted over who has the right to the project.

 
“In 2014, I went to court… The court agreed that it is the duty of the president to prepare the budget, while the national Assembly, even though not a rubber stamp, shall inform input into the budget. But that does not mean, according to the judgment, that it can be substituted with another by the National Assembly.

“The constitution says the ‘President shall cause to be prepared’. What does preparation mean? It means the Ministry of Budget, the Ministry of Finance and all the relevant agencies of government will prepare the budget and collate the figure…the Presidency would have done some feasibility studies.

“If that is presented to the National Assembly, it has the right to say ‘a similar secretariat was built in Ghana at a lower cost’. But you cannot say it will cost N205b without any Bill of quantity…You cannot single-handedly introduce new projects. Who is going to fund it?”

Comments

comments

Comments are closed.