Budget : Osinbajo proposes N135.6bn virement for sector funding

The acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has submitted a proposal virement of N135.6bn to the National Assembly today.
The fund is set to cover projects across many MDAs, especially the Ministry of Power/Works/Housing.
This request was made in a letter dated July 18, 2017, which was read to members of the House by its Speaker on Thursday, in Abuja.
The acting president drew the attention of the House to discussions and agreements between the legislature and executive before this year’s Appropriation Bill was signed into law.
On the part of the executive, it was agreed that the executive should submit a “virement proposal’’ to transfer some funds from within the budget to other critical sector in the budget.
Some of the ministries affected by the request are Agriculture and Rural Development, Power, and Works and Housing; Transportation.
Details of the proposal request featured that about N46bn is to be vired within projects of Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and N66bn within projects of Ministry of Transportation.
The vired fund is from, N33.25bn from Ministry of Transportation, N3.18 bn from Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and N14.13bn from Office of the Secretary to the Government.
Also, N5bn is to be moved from Office of the National Security Adviser, N5.01bn from Ministry of Science and Technology and N5.41bn from Ministry of Trade and Investment.
The sum of N1bn is to be collected within projects of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, N7.70bn from Ministry of Interior and N80.50m within Ministry of Trade and Investment.
Similarly, N3.15bn is to be sourced from Ministry of Defence, N770m from Ministry of Education, N1.7bn from Federal Capital Territory Administration and N1.3bn from Ministry of Trade and Investment.
Ministry of Health is expected to release N1bn, N735.04m from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and N1.09 billion from Ministry of Labour and Employment.
It was reported that, the letter indicated that N734m would be sourced from Ministry of Communication and Technology, N729m from Ministry of Information and Culture, and N2.39bn from Ministry of Water Resources and as well as from other sectors.
The communication from the acting president stated that the specific appropriated items to be vired to were contained in schedule 1, while appropriated items from which to vire the amount required were contained in Schedule 2.
The acting president hence, asked for the cooperation of the house towards execting these project which needs an urgent attention.
Dogara referred the request to the Committee on Appropriation for necessary action.