 |
Mrs. Patience Jonathan |
The
Senate on Wednesday dropped the controversial African First Ladies’
Peace Mission House project when it passed the N259.65bn budget of the
Federal Capital Territory for the 2013 fiscal year without approving the
N4bn appropriated for it.
In February when the budget proposal was
brought to the National Assembly, it contained N4bn vote for the
construction of the mission house in Abuja, a development that attracted
a lot of criticisms from members of the public.
The Senate, during the second reading of
the bill, questioned the rationale of committing scarce resources to
prosecute a less important structure.
Civil rights groups and political
parties had also berated the Federal Capital Territory Administration
for budgeting N4bn for the construction of the building for a
non-governmental body headed by the wife of the President, Mrs. Patience
Jonathan.
They had contended that since the
Federal Government had earlier declared the mission as a
non-governmental organisation, it would be inappropriate for the same
government to spend public funds on it.
Presenting the budget report on
Wednesday, the Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Smart Adeyemi,
said, “It is worthy of note that the proposed appropriation for the
construction of building for the African First Ladies’ Peace Mission has
been distributed to meet pressing needs in the area of engineering and
satellite towns.”
A breakdown of the budget showed that
N48.03bn was approved for personnel matters; N49.5bn for overhead;
N97.54bn for recurrent expenditure; and N155.66bn as capital
expenditure.
Adeyemi said the budget was predicated on a projected revenue of N259.698bn with a fiscal surplus of N645,666.
He also said that in carrying out its
oversight duties, the committee identified critical areas of need for
the development of the territory and to ensure improved standard of
living for its inhabitants.
PUNCH
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