The Federal House of Representatives has rejected President Goodluck Jonathan’s proposal for the amendment of the 2013 Budget.
Rejecting the budget amendment proposal after the presentation of a report on it at the plenary session, the legislators described the fiscal document as bad.
Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business Hon. Sam Tsokwa led the report presentation on behalf of the Joint Committees on Rules and Business, Judiciary and Justice, which was mandated with the task of examining and determining the legality of the president’s letter to the National Assembly last March.
“A community reading of Section 81 subsections (1) (2) and (4) of the Constitution creates a very strong impression and feeling in the mind that the Constitution does not favour, admit of or even contemplate the amendment of an Appropriation Act save through a Supplementary Appropriation Act,” Tsokwa said, adding that the Appropriation Act 2013 Amendment Bill, which the president communicated to the House, was shoddily prepared.
“Apart from carrying the title “Appropriation Act 2013 Amendment Bill” and the Bill’s Long Title, it has nothing again in it to show that it is a document seeking to amend or repeal and re-enact the 2013 Appropriation Act,” he observed.
In the report, Tsokwa told the lower legislative chamber that the president was reticent on parts of the 2013 Appropriation Act requiring amendment. He also said the president should have presented a Supplementary Appropriation Act.
