On Thursday, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo asked the National
Assembly to approve a virement of N135.6billion for 14 Federal
Ministries and the Office of the Secretary of Government of the
Federation (OSGF).
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 letter was referred to the House Committee on Appropriation for further legislative actions by Speaker Dogara.
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