Osinbajo Requests N135.6bn Virement From Reps To Fund Projects

Thu, Jul 20, 2017 | By publisher


Business

ACTING President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday made a virement request of N135,643,018,749 from members of House of Representatives to fund various government projects and programmes.

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo in a letter dated July 18, 2017 and addressed to the Speaker of the House,  Yakubu Dogara, Osinbajo said that the funds would be vired from various budget lines in the the 2017 Appropriation Act. According to him, 15 Ministries and agencies would be affected. He also  explained that the virement was part of the agreement reached by himself and the leadership of the Senate and the House prior to the signing of the N7.441 trillion into law.

He said: “You will recall that the 2017 Appropriation Bill was signed into law on 12 June,  2017. However, prior to the signing, discussions and consultations were held between the executive and the leadership of the National Assembly on some critical priority items for which adequate provisions had not been made in the 2017 Appropriation Act”.

The letter read by the Speaker stated that the sum of N46,004,049,292 is to be vired within projects of Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, while N66 billion is to be vired within projects of Federal Ministry of Transportation.

Sources of the virements, according to Osinbajo included: N33.247 billion from Ministry of Transportation; N3,181,973,545 from Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing; N14,130,719,780 from Office of the Secretary to the Government of Federation; N5 billion from Office of the National Security Adviser; N5,009,244,926 from Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and N5,494,065,749 from Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment.

The letter further stated that the sum of N1 billion is to be vired within projects of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; N7,698,811,674 from Federal Ministry of Interior and N80,500,000 from Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment; N3.150 billion from Federal Ministry of Defense; N770 million from Federal Ministry of Education; N1.7 billion from Federal Capital Territory Administration and N1.3 billion from Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment.

Others were: N1 billion from Federal Ministry of Health; N735,035,00 from office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation; N1,093,579,983 from Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment; N729 million from Federal Ministry of Information and Culture; N734 million from Federal Ministry of Communication and Technology; N2,387,541,000 from Federal Ministry of Water Resources; N1 billion from Federal Ministry of Mines and Steels Development; N241,001,800 from Federal Ministry of Environment, respectively.

Osibanjo who reminded the lawmakers of an agreement between the legislature and the executive said, “it was agreed that the Executive should submit a virement proposal to the National Assembly for your consideration. The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to forward the virement proposal”. He urged the lawmakers “to urgently consider the virement proposal in order to support our collective efforts to improve the well-being of our citizens,” –Vanguard

—  Jul 20, 2017 @ 16:50 GMT

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