President Buhari Aprroved N60bn for Constituency Projects in 2016 Budget-Reps

While briefing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, Spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Abdulrazak Namdas, said that President Muhammadu Buahri approved  the sum of N60 billion for constituency projects of lawmakers in the 2016 budget expected to be signed next week.

According to him, the constituency project funds also known as zonal intervention funds is standard international practice and was initiated by the executive and not the legislative arm of government.

“We are allowed to nominate projects since we are the representatives of the people and we know the problems in our communities, but the projects are domiciled with the ministries or agencies. The funds are not given as cash to legislators,” Namdas stressed.

According to Vanguard, Muhammadu Farouk, Niger APC, who insisted he was misquoted was also asked to retract a statement he made in an interview to a foreign radio station, that lawmakers had been given N100 million each for constituency projects at the plenary session where several members pf the House stated that the report had led to their  being threatened by their constituents.

Meanwhile, hinging on the statement credited to the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had so far recovered $2 trillion since its establishment, the House has directed its Public Accounts Committee, PAC, to carry out a comprehensive investigation of public funds and assets recovered from 1999 till date.
Source: Vanguard