2018 Budget: HEDA Writes Minister, Seeks Details Of Inserted Projects By NASS

The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre),
has asked the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo
Udoma, to furnish it details of the projects allegedly inserted into
the 2018 budget by the National Assembly.

In a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent to the Ministry by
HEDA and signed by its chairman, Mr Olanrewaju Suraju, the Resource
Center said it is really surprised and shocked to read that this
increment and addition from the National Assembly is due to insertion
of projects considered to be improperly valued and costed.

The letter reads: “HEDA wishes to express serious concern over the
N14.5 billion added to the National Assembly’s budget proposal in the
passed 2018 budget by the parliamentarians.
“According to The Cable of June 20, 2018, it was reported that
President Muhammadu Buhari accused members of the National Assembly of
increasing their own budget by N14.5billion from N125billion to N139.5
billion without any discussion with the Executive.

‘In his budget signing speech, it was reported that the lawmakers
also added 6,403 projects of their own to the 2018 budget proposal
sent to the the parliament by the executive. He also said that the
projects added by the National Assembly have not been properly
designed and will be difficult to execute.”

HEDA noted further that many of these new projects introduced by the
National Assembly have been added to the budgets of most MDAs with no
consideration for institutional capacity to execute them or the
incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.
“According to the President, some of the projects affected are
Mambilla power plant, second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the
East–west road, Bonny-Bodo road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and
Itakpe-Ajaokuta rail project whose budget were reduced by N11.5 billion.
” It was reported that the President submitted a proposal worth N8.612
trillion to the National Assembly which increased to N9.12 billion on
its return to the President.’

The Resource Center said it is really surprised and shocked to read
that this increment and addition from the National Assembly is due to
insertion of projects considered to be improperly valued and costed.
“HEDA on the 12th April, 2018 had written the president demanding for
the removal of unconstitutional allowances inserted in the 2018 Budget
which includes the unconstitutional running costs, as revealed by a
member of the Senate, Senator Shehu Sani.

“However, we are compelled to demand that you use your good office to
furnish us detailed information of all the inserted projects by the
National Assembly which led to N14.5 billion increase in the budget
proposal.
“We believe that the requested information will aid investigation with
a view to promoting accountability, probity, transparency and total
commitment in the fight to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.

“By virtue of Section 4(a) of the FOI Act, when a person makes a
request for information from a public official, institution or agency,
the public official, institution or agency to whom the application is
directed is under a binding legal obligation to provide the applicant
with the information requested for, except as otherwise provided by
the Act, within 7 days after the application is received.

“We humbly rely on the above provisions of the FOI Act and once again
request your office to provide our request within the next 7 days, as
failure to grant our request may compel HEDA to move against your
office by reliance on the provisions of the FOI Act,” HEDA said.