The Senate yesterday slashed the budgets of Ministries Department and Agencies to finance the 2019 general elections.
The Senate had approved N242 billion for the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies for next year’s elections.
The Senate had vired Fund from Service Wide Votes in the 2018 Appropriation to finance the 2019 general elections.
The Senate however rescinded its decision by slashing funds from Ministries Department and Agencies to finance the 2019 general election.
Presenting the virement for consideration, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, explained that the Committee decided to rescind its decision because of some obvious and imminent issues of national socio-economic importance.
According to the proposal of the Committee, N203 billion was earmarked for Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development, but N11 billion has been vired from the budget to finance the 2019 elections; Ministry of Budget and National Planning, which got N1.785 trillion in 2018 budget, N8.8 billion was vired from the Ministry’s budget; N828.5 million was vired from Ministry of Communication and Technology budget; N2 billion was vired from Ministry of Defence Budget; N10. 2 billion from Ministry of Education; and N1.5 billion from Federal Capital Territory Administration budget.
Also, N157 million was removed from Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission budget; N1.6 billion was vired from Ministry of Interior; N557 million was removed from Ministry of Justice budget; N170 million was removed from National Human Rights Budget; N1.2 billion was removed from the Presidency’s budget; and N121 billion was removed from Service Wide Votes.
