Osinbajo Seeks N’Assembly’s Approval for N135.64bn Virement for Priority Projects

The acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday requested the approval of the National Assembly for virement of funds totalling about N135.64 billion to finance federal government’s priority projects and programmes as contained in the 2017 Appropriation Act.

In his letter dated July 18, 2017, and addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and read on the floor of the House by the latter, made reference to the initial agreement between the executive and the legislature prior to the signing of the 2017 Appropriation Bill regarding some critical priority items which adequate provisions had not been made before its eventual passage into law.

The agreement however permitted the executive to submit a virement proposal to the National Assembly for consideration.

The breakdown of the virement proposal as submitted to the legislature by Osinbajo showed the sum of N3.15 billion is being vired from projects within the Ministry of Defence while N7.69 billion would be recouped from projects within in the Ministry of Interior.

The sum of N1 billion would be vired from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; N46 billion from the Federal Ministry of Finance; Education, N770 million; Federal Capital Territory (FCT), N3 billion; Health, N1billion; as well as Office to the Secretary to the Government, N735.03 million.

Others sources of virement are the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, N1.09 billion; Information and Culture, N729 million; Communication Technology, N734 million; Water Resources, N2.38 billion: Mines and Steel Development, N1.1billion and Environment, N241 million.

In addition, the sum of N66 billion proposed to be taken from projects within the Federal Ministry of Transportation is expected to be sourced from the Ministry of Transportation, N33.24 billion; Power, Works and Housing, N3.18 billion; Office to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N14.13 billion; Office of the National Security Adviser, N5billion; Science and Technology, N5 billion and Ministry of Trade and Investment, N5.40 billion.

Also, under the virement proposal to the Ministry of Interior, a breakdown showed N80.50 million will be sourced from the Ministry of Trade and Investment.

The acting president further appealed to the parliament to urgently consider the virement request “in order to support our collective efforts to improve the well-being of our citizens.”

The proposal was however, referred to the House Committee on Appropriation for further consideration.