Published
on November 14, 2022
The complain by President Muhammadu Buhari that agencies of the Federal Government have robbed the government with undue expenditure over unauthorised budget has begun to take investigative dimension.
This is as the National Assembly has commenced what would seem as its oversight function, probing into agencies found wanting of running unauthorised budget amounting to N2 trillion.
Moves by the House of Representatives have found no less than 63 agencies of the Federal Government summoned to answer to questions of running unauthorised budgets summed to about N2 trillion.
The lawmakers seem to be angered by acts of insolence of some agencies, particularly some Government-owned Enterprises and Non-Treasury Funded Agencies, sidelining legislative process of seeking approval before running what they have seen as “Illegal Approvals of Budgets and Extra-Constitutional Expenditure.”
According to the lawmakers, Mr President never presented the alleged budgets running up to N2trn before the National Assembly.
Consequently, a House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts summoned the 63 agencies of the Federal Government, holding that there was no statutory budgetary approval involving the sum by the National Assembly.
The Chairman of the Committee, Oluwole Oke, in view of the summons issued a written letter to the Budget Office of the Federation, requesting for the evidence of the budget approvals by the National Assembly.
The letter seeking evidence, dated November 8, 2022, was received at the Budget Office on November 10, 2022, having the House committee stating that the summons were sequel to the remark by President Muhammadu Buhari during his 2023 budget presentation to the National Assembly on October 7, that some agencies were operating on unauthorised budgets.
“Over N2 trillion was spent illegally. Mr President has never presented or assented to these budgets. They are to tell Nigerians why they are operating illegal budgets; budgets that have not gone through the due process of lawmaking.
“Mr President never presented them to the Parliament neither the Speaker nor the Senate President sighted or read them on the floor.
“All the agencies fingered have all been invited”, the letter reads in part.
