Contrary to opinions in some quarters that the Senate would not approve the N180bn request by President Muhammadu Buhari for the virement of funds appropriated in the 2016 Appropriation Act; the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday dazzled Nigerians by not only approving the said amount; but also increased the virement to the tune of N213,821,671,494.
The Senate also approved additional request of N300m appropriated in the 2016 Budget under the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for the construction of 132 KVA substation at Gwaram, Jigawa state.
President Muhammadu Buhari had about a month ago written to the National Assembly, requesting that a total of N180bn be approved as virement of funds appropriated in the 2016 Appropriation Act; to attend to some critical capital and recurrent expenditures.
The Senate considered the request and referred it to its committee on Appropriations for further legislative action on Wednesday 16th November 2016.
Presenting the report on Tuesday, the Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) said, “the committee met with its House counterpart and deliberated on the course of action in order to abridge time. And also jointly had an interactive meeting with the affected MDAs on the virement, that is, the source of the funds and the expenditure MDAs in the Budget to clarify the need for the virement.”