Budget padding: EFCC, ICPC Can’t Probe Any Reps Member –Dogara

Jubrin and Dogara

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday said no member of the National Assembly could be investigated or prosecuted for performing the legislative duty of passing an Appropriation Act.

He also took on critics, who joined a former Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, to accuse him of padding the budget, saying they lacked the understanding of the powers of the legislature on appropriation the PUNCH reports.

Dogara spoke on the crisis in the House at a time the police and other anti-graft agencies had commenced investigations into the budget padding allegations against him and some officers of the House.

The Speaker stated his mind at a ‘Civil Society Dialogue Session’ in Abuja on the ‘One Year of the Legislative Agenda of the 8th House’.

The session was organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, led by Dr Clement Nwankwo.

Speaking on the 2016 budget, Dogara referred all commentators to the 1999 constitution (as amended) and the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act, pointing out that a legislator was empowered to make any law, including the Appropriation Act, without being called to question.

Sounding upset, Dogara said, “The Constitution talks about the estimates of revenue and expenditure to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly. The Constitution did not mention the word budget.

“The reason is very simple. Budget is a law. Going by very pedestrian understanding of law, which even a year one law student knows, the functions of the government are such that the legislature makes the law, the executive implements and the judiciary interprets the law.

“The budget being a law, therefore, means it is only the parliament that can make it. I challenge all of us in the media and civil society organisations to look at our law and state where it is written that the President can make a budget.”

On the allegations that the budget was padded, Dogara argued that whatever changes that were made in the budget fell within the appropriation powers of the legislature, which could not be described as criminal.

He said, “What I am saying is further reinforced by Section 80(4) of the Constitution, which says that no money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other fund of the federation except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.

“I want this thing to sink so that we can understand it from here and perhaps it may change the ongoing discourse.

“You say the National Assembly doesn’t have the powers to tinker with the budget; that we should just pass it. But when it is prepared, we turn it into a bill. If it is a bill, how do other bills make progression in the parliament in order to become laws?

“If you contend that we cannot tinker with the Appropriation Bill, even though it is a money bill, it therefore goes without saying that we cannot tinker with any Executive Bill.

“Because, if they (Executive) bring a bill, they will not consult the public to say come and give us your inputs on this bill. It is the legislature that does that by the instrumentality of public hearing. When we aggregate your views, it is only our duty as representatives of the people to make sure that your voices are reflected. So, by the time we hear from you, we now turn it into a legislative bill, and when it gets to the President and he signs, they say some people have padded the bill.”

The Speaker also dismissed the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the police and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission to investigate the alleged padding.

“It doesn’t make sense. They have forgotten about the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act, sections 24, 30 and others, which state that most of the things we do in the National Assembly are privileged.

“They cannot be grounds for any investigation into the procedures or proceedings against a member of parliament; either the Speaker or the President of the Senate; once they are done in the exercise of their proper functions.

“The law is there; you can go and read it. This is in order to give independence to the legislature. If the legislature is not independent, we can’t do anything. If whatever you say on the floor of the House or either in the committee is subject to litigation, then all the members will be in court. At the end of the day, when debate comes, you cannot even air your view.

“The budget is a law and nobody can object to the fact that only the legislature can make the law and only the parliament that can conclude it,” Dogara added.

He also defended the inclusion of the controversial zonal intervention projects in the budget, a sub-head that took N100bn from the N6.06tn budget.

He argued that intervention projects were introduced to correct the imbalance in project implementation by ministers and heads of various agencies.

The Speaker said, “Just take the budget of a particular ministry for instance. Just check where the directors or some of the officials come from and look at their allocations in that ministry.

“If you do that exercise, you will be shocked. And that is why we are calling to question, the integrity of that process. The minister perhaps comes from a particular region and you will see up to 60, 70 per cent of that ministry’s funds go to that place.

“In furtherance of our responsibilities and duties as representatives of the people, you want to attract projects to the other regions…”