Naija News

ABUJA — FOR presenting the 2012 budget proposals of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja directly to the National Assembly without going through the Presidency as required by law, the Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, may be hammered by the lawmakers.

The action of the minister, which the lawmakers described as unprecedented, has split the leadership of the National Assembly.

It was gathered that the legislators, who were expecting the FCT's 2012 appropriation from the Presidency as has always been the tradition, were taken aback when they received the letter personally signed by the minister.

The letter, with reference No. FCTA/FCT/TRY/978/108, dated February 14, 2012, and signed by Bala Mohammed,  was, however, received by the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Aminu Tambuwal, on March 6, 2012.

One of the lawmakers, who heads a powerful committee in the Senate, pointed out that it amounted to a breach of protocol for the minister to send his budget directly to the legislators, without passing it through the Presidency.

A source in the National Assembly, who is familiar with the tradition of budget presentation to the legislature, said it was also wrong on the part of the Assembly to have accepted the letter in the first place.

The source said: "The letter should have come from the President and not the minister. The leadership of the House was also wrong in collecting the letter and the budget proposals from the minister."

The confusion trailing the letter is said to have generated a heated debate between the officials of the two chambers of the National Assembly, who have decided not to read it before the plenary to avoid trouble.

The leadership, it was learnt, has concluded plans to either return the "offending correspondence" to the minister or ignore it altogether.

Some lawmakers said last night that they were contemplating necessary sanctions against the minister to serve as a deterrent to others, who might want to bypass protocol in dealing with the members.

The minister's letter read: "I wish to forward herewith, the FCT 2012 statutory budget proposal for the consideration of the House of Representatives.

"Honourable Speaker, the FCTA  has proposed a total sum of N306,499,896,003 as its statutory budget with N219,456,138,277 as capital expenditure while the sum of N42,296,448,576 and N44,747,309,200 are for personnel and overhead costs respectively.

"Attached herewith, are three copies of the FCT 2012 statutory budget proposal for the consideration of the House of Representatives."

"Please accept the assurances of my highest regards for your most esteemed office", the minister said.