Nigerian Lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN) has disclosed that the National Assembly does not have the constitutional right to rewrite the budget.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2018 appropriation bill into law.
During the signing, Buhari had said the national assembly increased its budget from N125 billion to N139.5 billion
He also said the lawmakers added 6,403 projects of their own to the 2018 budget proposal sent to them, while they cut the appropriation for some key projects.
Speaking in an interview with Punch, Falana said the Buhari administration is to blame for alteration done to the budget.
He also expressed concern over the delay in signing the budget into law.
Falana said: “What we are witnessing is the height of impunity on the part of both the executive and the legislative organs of the government. The crisis has continued because the Fiscal Responsibility Act is often ignored.
“No doubt, the national assembly has become so bold in arrogance and impunity.
“Otherwise, how can they insert 6,403 projects while the President proposed 4,700 projects and increased capital expenditure form N2.36bn to N2.87bn?
“With respect, the Buhari administration has itself to blame for the mangling or padding of the budget by the national assembly.
“I sued the national assembly over the rewriting of the budget by the national assembly in 2014. The case was decided in 2016. The Presidency was not interested in the case.
“Even though the court struck out the case for want of locus standi to file the suit, it proceeded to hold that the national assembly lacks the constitutional power to abandon the budget estimates and revenues of expenditure proposed by the President and substituted them with their own.
“In 2016, the President promised to sanction the public officers who were indicted for the criminal padding of the budget. Did the President sanction any of the criminal suspects?
“It is such unprecedented official impunity permitted by the President that has encouraged the national assembly to continue the illegality of rewriting and jerking up the budget without cash or revenue to back it up,” he added.
