The Minister, BABATUNDE FASHOLA had in a media interview last week faulted the current practice that allows the legislators to unilaterally alter the Budget, but that drew condemnation from the spokespersons for the Senate and the House of Representatives.
They accused the Minister of spreading half truth and making fallacious statements, adding that the Minister should have known that the National Assembly only interfered with projects that had concession agreements and private sector funding components.
But in his latest response, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing expressed deep concern over the choice of the National Assembly spokespersons to name calling without addressing his observation on the 2017 Budget.
BABATUNDE FASHOLA warned that the nation was in trouble if lawmakers mistakes budgetary appropriation as cash, adding that there is no concession agreement on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge, as claimed by the lawmakers.
According to a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, HAKEEM BELLO, the Minister asked the National Assembly spokespersons to address the fundamental points about whimsical cuts in the allocations to several vital projects under the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing as well as other Ministries.
While acknowledging the need for legislative input before and during the Budget production process, the Minister observed that it amounted to a waste of tax payers money and an unnecessary distortion of orderly planning and development for all sections of the country, for lawmakers to unilaterally insert items that are not under the Exclusive or Concurrent Legislative lists of the Constitution, like boreholes and streetlights.
With specific regards to the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing; FASHOLA noted that the National Assembly altered allocations for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Bodo-Bonny road, the Kano-Maiduguri road, the Second Niger Bridge and the long drawn Mambilla Hydropower Project in favour of scores of boreholes and primary health care centres, which were never discussed during the Ministerial Budget Defence session.
