A presidential directive to deduct outstanding electricity bill of the military and para-military from their 2017 budgets has been issued, the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, has said.
Speaking yesterday while briefing journalists on the 2017 budget proposal, Akabueze said part of the reason why the electricity bills payment proposals increased in the 2017 budget of the various ministries and parastatals was because of the resolve by the government to settle about N92billion electricity debts to the distribution companies.
On the differential price for same items, the budget DG said there are genuine concerns which even the budget office is working to address, adding that the Bureau for Public Procurement is updating its price list, which will be structured into the budget preparation applications to make it impossible for different agencies to use different prices for same items.
On the issues of 250 million gate house for the Vice -president’s quarters, N3.8 billion for state house clinic, N400,237 repeated 20 times in FGC Garki budget among others were all non-existent in the 2017 proposal.
On the budget padding: “I can say without equivocation that there is no padding in the 2017 budget proposal. The process of preparing the 2017 budget required MDAs to upload their budget online by their accredited officers, who were issued access codes to ensure an audit trial of all entries.. The Budget presented to the National Assembly by Mr President was exactly what the MDAs certified.”
On the claim by the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola of the insertion of the N2 billion in his ministry budget by the Finance ministry, the DG budget said, the claim by the ministry was recalled after he realised that he was the one that made the mistake.
