Presidency reviews 2012 budget, sets oil benchmark at $90

JONATHAN-31-1-2012PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday forwarded a revised budget for 2012 to the National Assembly in which he sought approval to set aside N180 billion for the fuel subsidy regime.

In the letter read on the floor of both Senate and the House of Representatives, the President wrote: “Recent domestic developments, key among which was the partial withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products and the ripple effect on government revenue and expenditure items, have necessitated the revision of the 2012-2014 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the 2012 budget proposal which  I presented to the National Assembly on 13th December, 2011.”

President Jonathan gave the figure of the revised budget as N4,648,849,156,932 trillion out of which the sum of N372,593,095,601 billion is for statutory transfers and debt service, N559,580,000,000 billion.

The President also said that out of the estimated budget, N2,432,432,108,877 trillion is for recurrent expenditure (non-debt) while the balance of N1,284,243,952,454 trillion is for capital development for the year ending 31st December, 2012.

The revised budget was committed to the Committee on Appropriation.

It would be recalled that the President presented a budget of N4.749 trillion for year 2012 to the National Assembly last December.

Also, yesterday, the Senate recommended that the Police authority should fast-track the prosecution of Commissioner of Police in charge of anti-terrorism, Zakari Biu and those involved in the earlier escape of the rearrested terror suspect, Kabiru Umar, alias Kabiru Sokoto.

The Senate stated this following a report submitted by the Senator Igwe P. Nwagwu-led Committee on Police Affairs on the activities of Boko Haram sect and the escape from the Police custody of Umar.

The Nwagwu panel observed that Nigerian borders were porous and that Boko Haram “is not a sectional problem as they are against all well meaning Nigerians, whether from the North or South”.

The committee added that ‘’terrorism in Nigeria is the bane of economic and political factor and that it takes a pragmatic tackling of these economic and political factors to combat it’’.

Kabiru Sokoto was arrested on January 14 in connection with the Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Church, Mandala, Niger State in which several people died.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over yesterday’s session, commended the security forces for re-arresting Umar and other suspects in connections with incessant bomb explosions in various parts of the county.

Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has summoned 25 contractors handling various projects in Abuja over alleged sharp practices.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Smart Adeyemi, said the objective of the meeting, which begins today, “is to expose institutional corruption perpetuated by construction companies in the country.’’

He added: “When projects are awarded to contractors, they are expected to submit the Bill of Quantity, which clearly stipulates everything that would be used in executing the contract including raw materials and their quantities.

“But after submitting this bill in Nigeria and the contractors are paid fully for the job, they turn to use raw materials that were not stipulated in their Bills of Quantity without paying for them”.

Adeyemi also disclosed that while the Federal Government usually pays for heavy-duty equipment for construction works, upon completion of projects, the equipment were often retained by contractors.

He added that since his tour of some project sites in Abuja, he had been under pressure by some contractors to drop the coming probe of the activities of construction companies in the country.

According to him, the investigation would not stop with contractors but would be extended to directors in charge of engineering works in government agencies.

In another development, the Senate called for return of sanitary inspectors as a way of combating cholera outbreak in the country.

This was in reaction to the report of the Committee on Health headed by Senator Gyang Dantong in respect of a motion titled “Cholera, a recurring epidemic.”