National Assembly. Photo Femi Ipaye

Kazeem Ugbodaga

As the budget showdown between the Presidency and the National Assembly rages on, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Anti-Corruption has refuted reports that the National Assembly padded the 2016 Budget estimates for the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

The Committee Chairman, Babajide Akinloye in a statement on Sunday described the media reports published recently in a national daily and entitled “National Assembly Pads CCB’s Budget by Over N4 Billion Naira” as a gross falsehood and total mischief.

According to the lawmaker who represents Eti-Osa Federal Constituency of Lagos State, his committee only rearranged the order and priority of the Code of Conduct Bureau at the request of the organization.

Akinloye remarked that CCB had during the budget defense informed the committee that the working environment for its staff was not conducive at its five different offices scattered around Abuja and that this acts as impediment to its efficiency.

The lawmaker in the statement explained that CCB had after the 2015 budget, returned over N230million, hitherto earmarked for the building of the bureau’s head office in Abuja to the coffers of the Federal Government.

But after due engagement with CCB management, it was agreed that the bureau could either continue with the Head office project or buy a building that will accommodate their operations for optimum service delivery in its anti-corruption drive.

This he said led to the inclusion of N4 billion for CCB head office project in the budget sent to the President. “Linking the approval of the CCB Head office project in the Budget passed by the National Assembly to ongoing court case of the Senate President is the highest act of blackmail and sheer falsehood against the National Assembly in whole and the House Committee on Anti-Corruption in particular,” he remarked.

He added the that House committee in its oversight responsibilities had engaged in robust interactions with other agencies such as the ICPC and the Code of Conduct Tribunal towards ensuring that the anti corruption war is supported with resources to achieve their statutory duties and wondered why only that of the CCB is raining dusts

The lawmaker said while the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the National Assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation rests with National Assembly. “In sound democracies, the Executive does not expect the Legislature to return the budget proposal, hook, line and sinker the way it was presented to the Assembly to it without any adjustments.” Hon. Akinloye added.

“The wishes of my people back home and several millions of Nigerians is the accelerated implementation of the budget which should fast track the needed developments and reduce the untold hardships and not all these baseless allegations which are indeed, uncalled for,” he said