He argues that the Senators do not have the power to alter the budget, but the senators argue that they have the constitutional right to do do. In this statement released by his media aide, Hakeem Bello, Fashola said the senate's lack of wisdom on issues such as this is quite worrisome. Read the statement abeg
The
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN has
expressed deep concern over the recourse of the National Assembly’s
Spokespersons to name calling over his observations on the 2017 Budget.
In
a Press Release signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Hakeem
Bello, the Minister said he was worried that the National Assembly
Spokespersons failed to address the fundamental points about
development- hindering whimsical cuts in the allocations to several
vital projects under the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing as well as
other Ministries.
Fashola
had, in a recent interview while acknowledging that Legislators could
contribute to budget making, disagreed with the practice where the
legislative arm of Government unilaterally alters the Budget after
putting members of the Executive through Budget Defence Sessions and
Committee Hearings to the extent that some of the projects proposed
would have become materially altered.
While
acknowledging the need for legislative input from the representatives
of the people to bring forward their developmental aspirations before
and during the Budget production process, the Minister had observed that
it amounted to a waste of tax payers money and an unnecessary
distortion of orderly planning and development for all sections of the
country, for lawmakers to unilaterally insert items not under the
Exclusive or Concurrent lists of the Constitution like boreholes and
streetlights after putting Ministries , Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
through the process of Budget Defence.
Specifically
with regards to the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Fashola
listed the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway, the Bodo- Bonny road, the
Kano-Maiduguri road, the Second Niger Bridge and the long drawn Mambilla
Hydropower Project among others as those that the National Assembly
materially altered the allocations in favour of scores of boreholes and
primary health care centres which were never discussed during the
Ministerial Budget Defence before Parliament.
In
their responses both the Spokespersons of the Senate and the House of
Representatives accused the Minister of spreading “Half-Truths” and
making “Fallacious “ statements because he (Fashola) should have known
that they only interfered with projects that had concession agreements
and private sector funding components. They also accused the Minister of
wanting to hold on to such projects in order that he may continue to
award contracts.
However,
while dismissing the allegations in the course of an official trip
outside the country, Fashola said it was sad that the lawmakers would
resort to name calling even without understanding the facts of what they
were getting into. Taking the projects which the lawmakers chose to
focus on one after the other, the Minister insisted that there is no
subsisting concession agreement on the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway adding
that what the Infrastructure Construction Regulatory Commission (ICRC)
has is a financing agreement from a consortium of banks which is like a
loan that still has to be paid back through budgetary provisions.
There
is no fallacy or half truth in the allegation that the budgets were
reduced. The Spokespersons admitted this much and now sought to
rationalize it by a concession or financing arrangement that has failed
to build the road since 2006. The biggest momentum seen on the road was
in 2016.
In
the case of the Second Niger Bridge where one of the Spokespersons
alleged that the provision in 2016 budget was not spent and had to be
returned, Fashola said that this displays very stark and worrisome gaps
in knowledge of the Spokesperson about the budget process he was
addressing.
According
to him, a budget is not cash. It is an approval of estimates of
expenditure to be financed by cash from the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance has not yet released any cash for the Second Niger Bridge, so no money was returned.
Three
phases of Early Works of piling and foundation was approved and
financed by the previous Government in the hope that a concession will
finally be issued, which has not happened because concessionaires have
not been able to raise finance.
The
continuation of Early Works IV could not start in May 2016 when the
budget was passed because of high water level in the River Niger in the
rainy season.
The
contract was only approved by the Federal Executive Council in the
first quarter of 2017 and the contractor is awaiting payment.
Dismissing
the allegation that the Ministry under him was holding on to projects
that could be funded through Public Private Partnerships (PPP) so that
he could award contracts as a tissue of lies, the Minister said from Day
One of his assumption of office, he made it clear publicly and
privately that his priority would be to finish as many of the several
hundreds of projects that his Ministry inherited which had not been
funded for close to three years.
According
to Fashola, if the Spokesperson was in tune with the Public Procurement
Law which the National Assembly passed, he would realize that the
Minister has no unilateral power to award such contracts whose values
are in Billions of Naira, adding that all the new projects presented to
the Federal Executive Council for approval were either Federal roads
requested by State Governments or those put in the Budget by the
Legislators to service their constituencies.
Fashola
stated that the focus on contracts by the Spokesperson is probably a
Freudian slip that reveals his mindset and interests; when indeed he
should be focused on Developmental projects that strengthen the economy,
which is the focus of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan endorsed by
the legislature.
Also
responding to the issues that the Budget for the Mambila Power Project
was slashed because it contained a “ whooping N17 bn” for Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA), the Minister said there was indeed a
mis-description of that particular Expenditure Head which could have
happened during the classification of so many thousands of Budget heads
in the Budget estimates.
According
to him, what was described as a Budget Head for EIA was actually the
nation’s counterpart funding to the China- EXIM loan to fund the
building of the Mambila Project , adding that this was brought to his
attention only after it had been slashed and that if the intention was
not to slash arbitrarily it should have been brought to his attention to
explain. “At a joint meeting convened at the instance of the Budget
Minister when I complained that the budget was slashed, the issue of EIA
was brought to my attention and I explained what it was meant for,”
Fashola said.
On
the issue of the N20 Billion provision in the Ministry’s Budget which
the Spokesperson alleged that the Minister failed to give details of,
Fashola said the Spokesperson is hiding behind a finger.
The
Minister explained that it was a very basic principle of good planning
to make provision for unforeseen contingencies adding that in the 2016
Budget , a similar provision enabled the Ministry to respond to the
failures of the Tamburawa Bridge in Sokoto, the Ijora Bridge in Lagos
and the Gada Hudu Bridge in Koto Karfe along the Abuja – Lokoja Highway.
Similarly, the Ministry was able to pay N1BN to the Contractor handling
the Suleja to Minna road.
The
recent failures caused by flooding along Tegina-Mokwa-Jebba road and
Tatabu in Niger State could not have been provided because they were not
foreseen and there may be more. “ This is what good planning is about
,“ Fashola said.
Noting
that the Senate Spokesperson missed the point in the haste to cast
aspersions on him because he was not at the meetings he was speaking
about, Fashola said he would have expected a more sober approach to the
matter. “ In any event, allegations of half truth is only a flawed
response to the constitutional and developmental issues that have
plagued Nigeria from 1999 about how to budget for the critical
infrastructure in Nigeria. It shows the conflict between the Executive
that wants to build big Federal Highways; Bridges ; Power Plants; Rail;
and Dams on one hand and Parliament that wants to do small things like
Bore holes , Health Centres , Street lights and supplying grinding
machines ,” he said.
According
to the Minister, being an institutional and not a personal issue, it
won’t be out of place to seek a resolution of the conflict at the
Supreme Court in order to protect the country’s future, because it is a
clear conflict about how best to serve the people.
“
As long as Budgets planned to deliver life changing infrastructure are
cut into small pieces, Nigeria will continue to have small projects that
are not life changing , and big projects that have not been completed in 17 years
. If a project would cost N15 Billion and the contractor gets only a
fraction of that, then things won’t move. Success should be defined by
how many projects an administration is able to complete or set on the
path of irreversible completion and not how many poorly funded contracts
are awarded,” he said
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