The National Assembly has issued an ultimatum of a week to the Presidency for assenting to the N4.987trn Appropriation Bill for the 2013 fiscal year.
Failure to comply, according to the spokesman of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Zakari Mohammed, may compel the Legislature to override the president’s veto by next week.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Mohammed stated that the two chambers would give the Presidency a grace of one week before exercising the constitutional powers of the Legislature at the expiration of the 30-day deadline stipulated by the Constitution.
“Right now, as we speak, the leadership of the National Assembly is interacting with Mr. President on the 2013 budget and by next week, if nothing has
been achieved, we are going to apply the constitution, which gives us powers to override his veto,” he said.
“We are not afraid to take that decision; we must explore all means available before taking a decision. We still have time before we go into that; the National Assembly will act at an appropriate time. The constitution demands 30 working days; and as far as we are concerned, it is not yet time.
“Even the fourth quarter allocation that was done few days ago would definitely be utilised properly because the implication is that if we end the budget by December 31. It means that some money may have to be returned to the treasury; and as the case with some MDAs, the monies, because of the rush in getting their records together. might even be misapplied.”
The House spokesman, who expressed the commitment of the seventh Assembly towards ensuring transparency, hinted on the plan to scrutinise government’s account on quarterly basis.
“Another area of contention is the matter of quarterly briefing of the House by the Minister of Finance,” he said.
“The National Assembly is asking for this because we have been variously accused of not doing our oversight function properly and we are now saying, quarterly, let the finance minister come around and brief us about budget performance.”
