Legislators from the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Senate on Tuesday rejected the 2014 Appropriation Bill, branding it anti-people and urging the chamber to shelve discussions on it.
Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Gorge Akume led the opposition, acknowledging that budgets passed into law and appropriately implemented will spur growth and development.
He urged that debate on the budget should be suspended because relevant documents needed by the senators to make informed contributions in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act were made unavailable, despite knowing that most of the senators are not experts on budgetary issues.
He listed some of the documents as underline revenues and expenditure profile of government, the revenue framework broken down monthly and sector by sector, and the document explaining the performance of the 2013 budget.
He chided the Federal Government for its management of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) fund, such that the fund is disbursed like an omnibus allocation to full almost any need.
He argued that the Senate should be in no hurry to pass the budget, instead suggesting a line-by-line consideration and scrutiny to expose all grey areas. He criticised the budgeting of about N700 million for the entertainment of visitors of VIPs (Very Important Personality) in the Presidency while another N300 million was allocated to State House clinic, which is unavailable to ordinary Nigerians,
Also contributing, Senator Ahmed Lawan (APC, Yobe North) described the budget as the worst appropriation in the history of the country and the worst for the Nigerian people. He implored the Senate to shun discussions on the 2014 budget until the implementation of the 2013 budget is first analysed.
He observed that the recurrent expenditure in 2013 budget was fully implemented even beyond the budgetary allocation, while the capital expenditure was implemented at less than 40 per cent implemented.
