Reps set to approve N209b virement
The House of Representatives is set to approve the request for virement of N208.821 billion in the Appropriation Act 2016.
This follows the submission of the report of the House Committee on Appropriation at plenary on Wednesday.
While the requested Special Intervention in Recurrent Expenditure was N167,113,304,018 that of Capital was N39,208,367, 476.
The request was sent to the Hon. Mustapha Dawaki- headed committee on Appropriation November 16 for further legislative inputs.
While submitting the report yesterday, Dawaki said the committee had met with relevant stakeholders.
“The affected MDAs justified the need for intervention and approval of the virement. The Committee observed that there are other areas of critical needs with potential for developing and stimulating the economy and for which additional funds could be be provided through virement from the Special Intervention Programme,” he said.
The committee report showed a virement request from Service Wide Vote ( SWV) for Public Service Wage Adjustment PSWA-N71.8 billion; SWV to Contingency-N1.2billion; SWV to Margin for Increase in Cost (MIC)-N2 billion; Ministry of Interior to Cadet feeding- Police Academy, Wudil, Kano-N932.4 million; SWV to Amnesty Programme-N35 billion; SWV to Internal Operations of the Armed Forces- N5.2 billion; SWV to Operation Lafiya Dole-N13.9 billion.
Others are Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, NYSC-N19. 792 billion; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Missions-N16.3 billion); Federal Ministry of Education: augmentation of Meal/ Subsidy/ Direct Teaching & Lab Cost – N900 million; and Statutory Transfer to Public Complaints Commission-N2.5 billion.
In the capital component of the virement are the Ministry of Defence, Nigerian Airforce- N12.7 billion; Capital Supplementation: Presidential Initiative for the Northeast-N1.5 billion; and Payment of local Contractors Debts/ Other Liabilities-N25 billion.
However, there was confusion in the manner of presentation of the report of the Committee in the Order Paper as it stated that the report which came via a motion was titled: “Receipt and Approval of the request for the virement of funds in the Appropriation Act, 2016.”
The motion was unanimously passed by members when it was put to vote by the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.
But the Chairman of the Rules and Business Committee, Hon. Orker Jev and the Minority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor cleared the air saying the request still has to be considered in the Committee of Supply before it is finally approved by the House.
The Spokesman of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas also said in spite of the virement coming as a motion and its subsequent passage, it will still be considered by the whole House before approval.
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