Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has said the request for virement by the Executive was unconstitutional.
Ekweremadu said this during the plenary on Thursday.
Background:
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had submitted a request for the virement of N135bn from the 2017 budget.
This was when President Muhammadu Buhari was receiving treatment in London.
What happened:
When the request for virement came up for consideration at plenary, many of the senators kicked against it and described the request as “unconstitutional”.
However, the President of the Senate pleaded with his colleagues and eventually succeeded in getting the request to be referred to the committee on Appropriation.
What Ekweremadu said:
While speaking, Ekweremadu said;
- If the government wanted to complete some of its priority projects, it should present a supplementary budget.
- The government could also wait till next year to send a fresh budget.
“Virement is unconstitutional. We must uphold the constitution. When reforming the budget, we should take note of this.
“You can only spend money either through normal budget or through supplementary budget.
“This executive seems not to be interested in the process of budget. They prefer virement. The Appropriation Act is a law. We cannot just approve virement and it is not even in our constitution.
“We need to tell the executive that they can ask for a supplementary budget and not for virement. If the executive wants money in the future, they should come through a supplementary budget,” he said.
