Senate Approves Fund Transfer In 2016 Budget

The Senate has approved the request for virement of funds in the 2016 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari.The Senate on Tuesday gave the approval during the plenary on Tuesday, just as

 the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, pointed out that virement of funds in the national budget was not known to the Constitution. Buhari had in his letter to both chambers of the National Assembly, in which he requested for legislative approval for the virement, had requested for a transfer of the total sum of N180.8bn out of the N500bn already appropriated for social intervention programme, both recurrent and capital, to critical recurrent and capital items.The President said this was due to a number of reasons, including shortfalls in provisions for personnel costs, inadequate provision for the amnesty programme, continued requirements to sustain the war against insurgency and the depreciation of the naira.While Buhari requested for the virement of N180.8bn from the funds appropriated for Special Intervention (Capital and Recurrent), the House of Representatives, which is concurrently working in the request, had raised it to N208bn, while the Senate jacked it up to N213bn.
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