Reps reply Buhari on N1trillion constituency project claim.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday replied President Muhammadu Buhari on his recent claim that the National Assembly had wasted N1trillion on Constituency projects without corresponding impact on citizens in ten years.
President Buhari, while speaking at the National summit on
diminishing corruption in the public sector, claimed that the
constituency Projects has gulped N1trillion but with nothing
to show for it.
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He said, “The first phase report of tracking these projects by
ICPC confirms our worst fears that people at the grassroots
have not benefited in terms commensurate with the huge
sums appropriated for constituency projects since inception.
“I am, therefore, delighted that through the effort of ICPC,
some contractors are returning to site to execute projects
hitherto abandoned and that project sponsors are being held
to account.”
The Minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu raised a Point of
Privilege to challenge the claim during plenary on Tuesday.
According to Elumelu, the President misinformed Nigerians
about the actual amount spent on Constituency projects.
Elumelu said that less that 50% is released annually to fund
constituency projects. Adding that executive is responsible
for execution of the constituency projects not the
lawmakers.
“In the past 10 years, N100billion has been budgeted
annually, but our constituents have not gotten value for the
money spent.
Yes money has been budgeted but the release
has not been up to 30%.
“Section 4 of the 1999 constitution gives us the power to
make laws, but the onus is on the executive to execute the
project, we are not contractors.
it is painful that N100billion
is budgeted, but release, and I can authoritatively say that
less than 40% have been released in 2019. ICPC failed to tell
the President the percentage released,” he stated
Also speaking on the point of Order, the Deputy Minority
Leader, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) put the blame on
executive, noting that the partial releases were responsible
for the abandoned projects across the country.
“The breach of privilege is the preposition that money is
given to the parliament, ours is to make law, we make laws
but we do not execute projects. The reason you have
abandoned projects is because of release. I know that this
government has budgeted N8. 6trillion annually in the past 4
years, does it now mean that we have spent that said amount in the past years?
The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, in his reaction said that the
statement is a “breach of our collective privileges.”
However, the Speaker blamed the ICPC for the statement by
Buhari.“My concern is the unintended consequences of the words
from the report of the ICPC. It is okay for the National Assembly to be used a weeping boy.Reps reply buhari on other issues too
“The ICPC can use the Freedom of Information to request
for details of the projects. I don’t think the ICPC will
appreciate it if the National Assembly should do oversight
on the agency using the budget.
“I want to use this medium to send a word to the ICPC to be
careful, and do their work diligently,” the Speaker said.
