The Senate says its decision to cut the budget of some major projects of the Federal Government in the 2017 budget was due to the need to prudently channel public funds.
In a statement issued on Friday, June 23, by the Senate spokesperson, Sabi Abdullahi, he said the lawmakers measured the country’s needs against available resources before slashing the budgets.
Abdullahi said the Senate concluded that it would be more prudent to channel public funds towards smaller projects that are necessary for the citizens but might not be commercially viable.
“What we reduced from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the 2017 budget estimates was spread on Oyo-Ogbomoso Road in the South-West, Enugu-Onitsha Road in the South-East, and two other critical roads in the North-East and North-West. This was done to achieve equity,” Abdullahi said.
The senator faulted the statement by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, that lawmakers trimmed funding for the Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in order to hike their own budget.
The National Assembly’s budget was jacked up to N125 billion in the 2017 budget, from N10 billion.
Fashola had lamented that lawmakers removed some signature infrastructure projects the administration planned to develop or complete before 2019 and replaced them with over 100 roads in rural areas.
The Minister had said, “I am not saying that the legislature cannot contribute to the budget, but I hold the view that it cannot increase the budget because they do not collect the revenue with which to run or implement the budget.
“It is unconstitutional for the National Assembly to legislate on state roads.”
Fashola said the budget for Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was slashed by more than two-thirds from N31 billion to N10 billion, even as contractors have demanded an outstanding payment of N15 billion.
“Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15bn to N10bn and about N3bn or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Road budget,” he added.
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