Gbajabiamila charges FG on early Submission of 2020 MTEF, Budget

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has called on the executive arm to stick to the timetable for the submission of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the 2020 budget to allow the country revert to a full circle of calendar year budgetary system.

The speaker who made the call yesterday when the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustafa, paid him a courtesy visit, also impressed on the executive to provide an enabling atmosphere that would make the business of legislating smooth.

Gbajabiamila who solicited the support of the executive to facilitate reform agenda of the 9th House said, “part of the reforms that we are seeking to achieve, which we are sticking to do things differently is; and I will be seeing the president on this hopefully this week, but I will also like you to follow up on that. I will want a situation where before we go on break in the next two-two and half-three weeks, before we go on our long break, I want a situation where the MTEF is submitted to the House so that we can pass the MTEF before we go on break and then when we come back in September, may be within a week, by the end of September, we have the budget before us.

“Because by finance law, if the budget is based on the MTEF, the MTEF needs to be submitted before the budget. We don’t want to rush everything and at the end of the day the budget is brought in December. So, this is the time table that we have set; one, the MTEF to be submitted before two-three weeks for us to go over it, work on it and pass it before we go on our long break, come back in September and in the end of September, present the budget to us.

“What does that do? It leaves us with three clear months to pass the budget and what does that do? It brings us back to that circle that has been evasive; of January to December. So that by January 1 we pass the budget and we are back to that full circle of calendar year as envisaged in the constitution.

“So we would want you to help us with this process and whilst doing that we will also find a way to streamline budget process where the perennial-nagging problem of can members make an input, can members not make an input will not be there anymore, because the input of members really cannot be negotiated because that input is for the constituents. So, if that input can come before presentation of the budget, fine! All well and good. That is another way to do it, so that when the budget is coming in there is just little things here and there that we can tweak with but not to rewrite the whole budget.”

He further informed that lawmakers will approach the executive with an array of shopping list, that will make legislation easier and actualise the legislative agenda that the 9th House has set for itself, which include sending laundry list that would need executive intervention.

“You will be amazed that much as we pride ourselves as the biggest country in black Africa, this National Assembly does not have what you can call a library. We have more or less what is akin to shed at the back there like a bookstore. And is a tool of our work.

“We are going to be needing to make the House fully IT complaint. You will be amazed that in a National Assembly such as this to get access to the internet is actually a problem and how do you work if you don’t have internet at your fingertips.

“I am glad to announce that even by tomorrow when we resume sitting one of our reforms will already be in place. The chamber is more or less 80 percent IT compliant, we have a new set of equipment that allows easy face recognition, electronic registration, this whole building by tomorrow will be wifi or internet savvy. These we have done on our own in the last three weeks because these are promises we made and these are promises we must fulfil, so, we are going to need you to make this work.

“For me and many of us, people talk about independence of the legislature and that is very key and very important to us – absolutely important but what people seem to forget is that there is independence and inter-dependence of all three arms of government – you need me, I need you, it is going to be symbiotic relationship between all levels of government.

According to him, “Part of the laundry list again is that we are going to be asking that we handover the maintenance of this building to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) because as it is today the building is almost collapsing. The maintenance is at zero level and that is because those who are supposed to maintain it, funding and all of that has been a bit of a problem. So, we believe it should be handed over to the FCT where it will be a lot easier for them maintain it.

“I can begin to tell you how run down the building is. You don’t wash your dirty linen in the public, some of these things are best said behind closed door”, the speaker stated.

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