The Presidency has finally waded in on the budget padding scandal rocking the House of representatives, stating on Tuesday that the 2016 budget which President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law was not padded.
This was made known by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Mr. Ismail Kawu during an appearance before the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the party’s headquarters, Punch writes.
“I am here on the invitation of the APC leadership with my colleague (Kawu) to answer questions on the 2016 Appropriation Act,” Enang told journalists after the meeting.
“We have given explanation on every issue. There is nothing, to our knowledge, like padding of the budget. The budget, as assented to by the President, is the budget passed by the National Assembly and it is being executed.
“For now, the party is handling it as a domestic issue; a party issue. All of us have been told not to make public comments because the matter is still under consideration.
“We will not want to go into the details so that we will not breach the party’s directive or pre-empt the outcome of the party’s probe.’’
When asked if the Presidency had cleared Dogara of padding the budget, Enang said the Presidency would not “draw conclusions,” although he added that there was nothing like “padding” as the legislature had the constitutional duty to amend the Appropriation Bill sent to it by the President.
“In all our years of legislative engagement, we have yet to find in the legislative lexicon the word, ‘padding.’ When the budget is presented before the legislature, the legislature is to consider the budget and pass as it deems fit.
“So, what the legislature passes becomes the Appropriation Act upon assent. Therefore, any word which has yet to crystallise in legislative lexicon, you cannot hear us mention it.”
The Transparency Group, a group of lawmakers backing Hon Jibrin, however, faulted the stand and asked Enang to advise President Buhari appropriately.
Meanwhile,
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced investigations into allegations of budget padding as former House of Representatives appropriations committee chairman, Hon Abdulmumuni Jibrin faced an EFCC probe panel on Tuesday.
Following his removal as appropriations committee chairman, Jibrin had accused Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Minority Leader Leo Ogor and nine others of padding the budget with N284 billion.
An EFCC source said: “We engaged Jibrin between 1pm and 5pm on the allegations in the petition he filed before this commission including those already in the public domain and the new ones presented to us.”
The EFCC probe is to be extended to the entirety of the national assembly as well as the budget ministry. It was learnt that the agency has written a letter to the national assembly clerk, Mr Mohammed Sani Omolori, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and National Planning over the budget padding scandal.
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