In the letter titled ‘Request for virement and supplementary 2018 budget,’ dated July 11, President Buhari urged the
lawmakers to remove projects earlier inserted into the budget and replace them with priority projects as contained in the original bill he submitted to the National Assembly last year.
It would be recalled that while signing the 2018 budget on June 20,President Buhari raised the alarm that the federal lawmakers had tampered with the document sent to them
and made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects he submitted for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.
President Buhari however shocked the National Assembly by asking the lawmakers to remove N228 billion from N578 billion appropriated for new projects inserted into 2018
budget insisting that he would not submit a supplementary budget to fund those priority projects and urged them to remove those they inserted which he considered not critical to pave the way for his ‘critical’ projects.
In the letter, Buhari also proposed a supplementary budget of N242, 445,322, 600 to fund six agencies in the 2019 general election explaining that out of the amount, N164,
104,792,065 will be drawn from the 2018 supplementary budget while N78, 314,530,535 will form part of the 2019 budget of the six agencies that would be actively involved in the 2019 general elections.
He also disclosed that the N78 billion which according to him would be mostly related to personnel allowances, fueling and other costs not required until election proper is to be provided for in the 2019 budget.
According to him, the total money needed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for 2019 elections is N189 billion while the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA requires the sum of N4.2 billion.
Others are the Department of State Security, DSS, N12.2 billion, National Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, N3.5 billion, Nigerian Police, N30.5 billion while Nigerian Immigration Service requires the sum of N2.6 billion.
“The total amount required to be provided for in the 2018 budget for the general elections and to restore the identified critical projects to the amount earlier proposed is therefore N228.8 billion.
“Implementing a budget of N9.12 trillion for 2018 will be extremely challenging and therefore, I do not consider it
expedient to propose a further increase to the size of the 2018 Expenditure Framework to fund these very important and critical expenditure items.
“Accordingly, I invite the distinguished Senate to consider, in the national interest, reallocating some of the funds
appropriated for the new projects which were inserted into the 2018 budget proposal totaling N578 .3 billion to cover the sum of N228.8 billion required as noted above”, he declared.
The summary of the proposal is as follows: INEC – 2018 supplementary – N143, 512, 529, 445; 2019 budget – N45, 695, 015,438, Total: N189, 207, 544, 893. Office of the
National Security Adviser – 2018 supplementary – N3, 855, 500, 000, 2019 budget – 426, 000, 000, Total – 4, 281, 500,000 – DSS 2018 supplementary – N2, 903, 638, 000, 2019 budget – N9, 309,644,45, Total – N12, 213, 282, 455.
Others are NSCDC – 2018 supplementary – N1, 845, 597, 000 2019 budget – N1, 727, 997, 500, Total – N3, 573, 534, 5000 Nigeria Police – 2018 supplementary – N11, 457, 417,
432, 2019 budget – N19, 083, 900, 000, Total – N30, 541, 317, 432. NIS – 2018 supplementary – N530, 110, 078, 2019 budget – N2, 098,033, 142, Total – N2, 628, 143, 320.
Further breakdown shows that the total amount for 2019 general elections is as follows:- 2018 supplementary – N164, 104, 792, 065, 2019 budget – N78, 314, 530, 535, Total – N242, 445, 322, 600.
President Buhari had reluctantly signed the 2018 Budget saying that the lawmakers inserted projects that made
nonsense of the focal projects worth N578.billion to which lawmakers defended insisting the additions were to balance the budget and correct anomalies.
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