…Says NASS leaders should resign
Say No Campaign Organization, a Civil Society Organization has indicted the President, Muhammadu Buhari of complicity in the budget padding scandal rocking the House of Representatives saying “the successful padding of the budget requires the collaboration of both the Legislature and the Executive.
The anti corruption group also demanded the immediate constitution of an independent panel of inquiry to undertake a comprehensive review, audit of the constituency projects and constituency offices between 2004 and 2016, with a view to identifying and indicting culprits.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, on Tuesday, conveners of the group, Ezenwa Nwagwu and Jaye Gaskia said if Nigeria is to meet the basic needs of citizens, budget padding, which they described as “reflection of much deeper anomalies inherent in our systems and processes” must be addressed.
“We call for the entire leadership of the National Assembly to step aside, or be removed by their colleagues pending the outcome of the independent inquiry and audit process.
“Complete overhaul of the national development planning and consequent budgetary process to ensure needs assessment and multi-stakeholder participatory based process.
“To this end, we call for an audit of the budgetary process to determine gaps in the Fiscal Responsibility Act and other relevant frameworks, as well as ascertain the level of compliance with the Act. This includes making recommendations for punishing infringement of the FRA.”
The group observed that “the budget padding allegation is an indictment of the entire leadership of the National Assembly, and of the budgetary process in its entirety.
They also added that “constituency Project system, since inception in 2004, has been an avenue for monumental fraud.”
The anti corruption group, however, noted that the current scandal in the House of Representatives presents an opportunity for Nigerians to undertake a holistic review and overhaul of entire budgetary process along with the National Development Planning process.
“We insist that the fundamental flaw creating the enabling environment for budget padding and the fiscal recklessness and grand corruption that comes along with it is the complete absence of a framework and process for strategic national development planning.
