The Senate after today’s session will not be seating until July 12- adding another two weeks to the series of breaks already taken by the legislative arm of government in the last calendar year.
Before the Senate adjourned proceedings to July, the 2016 budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was passed but over N19 billion was slashed.
The budget, which initially cost N260 billion, was cut down to N241 billion, according to a report submitted by Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman, senate committee on NDDC.
He explained that the budget was reduced to make implementation of projects feasible.
A perusal of the budget reveals that N18 billion was slated for personal cost, N10 billion for overhead, N1 billion for internal capital and N231 billion for development projects.
Nwaoboshi revealed the source of the revenue for the budget to be “oil companies’ contributions and others, amounting to N130bn, ecological funds of N10bn and other internally realised income of N100m.”
“Adjustments were made to reflect the new figure of N241 bn,” he explained.
“The reduction was made only in the capital projects amounting to 8.2 per cent. The reduction did not affect the recurrent expenditure.”
Senate President, Bukola Saraki after the budget signing, urged the NDDC “to ensure proper implementation in view of its importance to the people of the Niger Delta Region and Nigerians at large.”
The Senate also passed the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (establishment) bill, 2016, before it adjourned.
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