Buhari Requests Approval for N180bn Transfer to Fund NYSC, Amnesty, Salaries and Others

Buhari Requests Approval for N180bn Transfer to Fund NYSC, Amnesty, Salaries and Others

Details have emerged of a request made by President Muhammadu Buhari to transfer unspent funds under the N500 billion Special Intervention Fund to other critical areas starved of funds.

In a letter to the National Assembly read on the floor of the senate at its plenary on Tuesday, President Buhari requested approval for the transfer of N180, 839, 254, 430 billion from the Special Intervention Fund.

The letter conveying the President’s request, dated October 24, 2016, contained a list of some agencies for which the fund is being sought.

The Nation provides a breakdown of the president’s proposal on how the sum requested under the virement is to be spent.

Of the cash, N71.8 billion will go to addressing shortfalls in Public Service Wage Adjustment. The Amnesty Programme will get N35 billion.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) will get N19.7 billion; Foreign Mission (N14.6 billion), Operation Lafiya Dole (N13.9 billion), Internal Operations of Armed Forces (N5.2 billion) and Margin for Increase in Cost  (N2 billion).

Others include Nigeria Air Force (N12.7 billion), Presidential Initiative for the North East (N1.5 billion), Public Complaint Commission (N1.2 billion), Contingency for Service-Wide Vote (N1.2 billion), Police Academy, Kano, (N9.3 million), Federal Ministry of Education (N900 million), among others.

Of the N180 billion, N166.6 is expected to be drawn for recurrent expenditure. The remaining N14.2 will be for capital expenditure.

In his letter, the president explained that the request became necessary due to shortfalls in workers’ salaries, adding that some ministries and departments of government presently stood the risk of being locked out of the IPPIS platform as their personnel cost budgets would not cover salaries for the rest of the year.

It also stated that only N20 billion was budgeted for the Amnesty Programme in 2016 and that the money had already been released, but could not cover the allowances of ex-militants who have not been paid since June.

This, the President observed, had created a lot of restiveness, compounding the security challenge in the Niger Delta.

The N19. 7 billion earmarked for the NYSC is meant to mobilise a backlog of 129, 469 corps members for November.

President Buhari cited delays in working out the operational modalities as reason for the slow take-off of the special intervention program. He however said adequate provisions would be made for it in the 2017 budget.