Senate yesterday approved the sum of N259.649, 520,705 with a surplus of N48, 716,036 as the Federal Capital Territory’s 2013 statutory budget.
But the Senate refused to appropriate funds for the construction of building for First Ladies Mission in Africa, saying the funds had been distributed to meet pressing needs in the areas of engineering and satellite towns.
Besides, the upper legislative chamber said it cannot appropriate for the building due to litigation in respect of the proposed plot of land, adding, “We cannot appropriate for a land that is not available”.
The amount approved for the nation’s capital city in the on-going year was less than that approved for it in the 2012 fiscal year, which stood at N306, 414, 159,188.
This followed the adoption of the ‘Report of the Committee on Federal Capital Territory: 2013 FCT Appropriation Bill’ presented by the committee’s chairman, Senator Smart Adeyemi.
Out of the amount, a total of N48,600,837,245 representing 18.7 percent was approved for personnel costs,N50,581,234,058, representing 19.5 percent for overhead costs while the sum of N160,467,449,402, representing 61.8 percent was for capital projects for the 2013 fiscal year.
Further breakdown of the budget indicated that the total recurrent expenditure stood at N99, 182,071,303, representing 38.2 percent with the grand total standing at N259, 649,520,705, representing 100 percent.
He said the committee, in carrying out its oversight duties, identified critical areas of need for development of the territory and ensure improved standard of living for its inhabitants.
“Therefore, the committee jostled with the budget estimates, deploying funds to meet areas of critical needs like roads, water, health, education and development of satellite towns within the territory, city maintenance and cleaning, recreational facilities, construction of rehabilitation centres, agriculture, transportation, security services and rehabilitation of ECOWAS Parliament Building”, he said.
Adeyemi said his committee observed that the overall performance of the statutory allocation in 2012 was only 43 percent, saying most of the projects earmarked in the year, were still on-going due to what he referred to as “overbearing ineptitude of getting the Due Process Certificate”.
In his remark, Senate President, David Mark who presided over the session, regretted that the nation’s federal Capital Territory had not lived up to expectation, saying managers of the capital city must urgently sit up.
He said: “The FCT is supposed to be a model town, a model capital city, and having passed this budget, we expect that the FCT will be a model capital city where everything functions, where we must get all the roads to be okay.”