President Buhari has raised an alarm over the National Assembly’s attempt to inject strange projects and financial irregularities into the 2018 budget.
President Buhari made the observation at the Presidential Villa, on Wednesday, as he signed the appropriation bill of N9.12 trillion into law, after the national assembly delayed the bill for seven months.
President Buhari accused the lawmakers of “making cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.”
Buhari said: “Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualized, designed and costed, and will therefore be difficult to execute. The provisions for some nationally strategic infrastructure projects such as counterpart funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project were cut by an aggregate of N11.5 billion.”
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