•Stops further spending in MDAs
From FRED ITUA, Abuja
Barely 48 hours after Senate President Bukola Saraki criticised the posture of the Federal Government’s anti-corruption war, the Senate yesterday issued a two-week ultimatum to President Muhammadu Buhari, to submit, the 2017 budgets of 38 statutory agencies.
In the same vein, the Senate ordered the agencies to discontinue further expenditures of capital budgets, pending the submission of their respective 2017 budgets.
The Senate took the position following the adoption of a motion tagged; “Non-submission of 2017 budget by public corporations in violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act,” sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah.
On Tuesday, The Red Chamber expressed shock that despite the fact that the Federal Government continued to lay claim to waging a war against corruption, agencies of the same government kept breaching the basic rules of corruption.
Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, said the matter was not only an infraction of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, but the Constitution.
He quoted portions of the Constitution prohibiting the withdrawal of monies from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, except in a manner, prescribed by the National Assembly.
He said: “We must begin to show that we operate by the laws we make. We cannot be going back and forth. It is our responsibility to compel the agencies concerned to submit their budgets for approval.
“We must give agencies an ultimatum to agencies to submit their budgets for appropriation by the National Assembly.”
Na’Allah had argued: “Non-compliance to the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act constitutes abuse of power and economic sabotage, aimed at frustrating the current economic measures being taken by the present administration to address the recession.
“The absence of penalties in the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, may have emboldened and encouraged the perpetuation of this act. The Fiscal Responsibility Commission is failing in its responsibility through complacence in the execution of this mandate.”
Senator George Sekibo said one of the functions of the executive, was to ensure that the laws were obeyed.
He said the failure of agencies to submit their budgets for appropriation was a gross misconduct. “They are spending public money,” he said.
As part of measures to guide against future abuses, the Senate also resolved to urgently amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act, to penalise infractions.
Saraki told heads of the various standing committees to discontinue work on already submitted budgets of the affected agencies.
He said until Buhari submitted the budgets in accordance with Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Section 21 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, any exercise by the committees would be voided.