N/Assembly Initiates Financial Autonomy Bill
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja
A law seeking to establish a self-accounting status for the legislative arms of government, to address a situation in which the executive starve lawmakers of funds has been proposed by the House of Representatives.
The Bill, which also seeks to establish a National Assembly Board, requires that at the beginning of every year, all money appropriated for the National Assembly would be released en bloc and kept in an account to be managed by the National Assembly Board.
Sponsored by Chairman of the House Legislative Budget and Research Committee, Honourable John Halims Agoda, the bill makes provisions that will enable the National Assembly to formally borrow money when the need arises for the purpose of discharging its functions in the event of low liquidity.
Section 1 of the Bill provides that, "there shall be established for the National Assembly a Special account to be known as the National Assembly Statutory Expenditure Account into which shall be credited not later than ten days after an Appropriation Act comers into force, all amounts charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation in respect of the National Assembly and its various organs, in a financial year".
Section 2 (1) of the proposed law states that, "Accordingly, the President shall not later than five days after passage into law of an Appropriation Bill, authorise by warrant, the issue from the consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, moneys necessary to meet or satisfy all statutory expenditure or meet the cost of all charges and obligations of the National Assembly and its various organs in respect of the financial year".
According to Aghoda, all such allocations to the Legislature would be received on their behalf by the Clerk of the National Assembly and paid into an account established for that purpose.
However, the Bill envisages a situation where the budget could be delayed and therefore made provisions under section 2(3) that, "Where the Appropriation Bill in respect of any financial year has not been passed into law by the beginning of the financial year, The President shall, not later than ten days from the beginning of the financial year, authorize by warrant the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, monies necessary to meet the statutory expenditure or the cost of the charges and obligations of the National Assembly and its various organs for the period, and under the conditions specified by section 82 of the Constitution.
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