The Upper Chamber "Senate's" Proposes 2.5% Of National Budget For Constituency Projects
The house of Senate has proposed that two and a half per cent of the federal budget be set aside annually for the funding of constituency projects in all the 109 senatorial districts and 360 federal constituencies in the country.
In a new bill titled Constituency Development Fund Bill, 2019, the upper chamber also set a five-year jail term, without an option of fine, for anyone found guilty of misappropriating the constituency fund.
Former Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, sponsored the bill.
If passed into law, the bill, which passed through First Reading at Senate plenary last Tuesday, will strip federal ministries and agencies of powers to determine the funding, implementation and management of constituency projects initiated by federal lawmakers and accommodated in the country yearly budgets.
The new bill is seeking the establishment of a dedicated fund, which would be 2.5 per cent of the country’s annual budget, to be managed solely by the Rural Development Department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
This is contrary to the current practice where the constituency projects federal lawmakers wish to be executed in their respective constituencies are captured in the annual budget while the Ministries, Departments and Agencies MDA not only award the contracts but also execute them.
The development has, allegedly, resulted in several cases of abandoned and poorly executed projects due to non-release of funds or poor funding by the federal government.
An example was the non-release of theN100 billion earmarked in the 2019 budget for constituency projects by the executive arm of government...!!
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