The Senate has said the N3.7 trillion allegedly added to the 2024 budget was statutory transfers to first-line charge agencies of government not domiciled in the ministries.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, made this known while speaking with journalists on Tuesday after plenary.
Recall that the lawmaker representing Bauchi Central, Senator Abdul Ningi, in an interview with BBC Hausa last Saturday, alleged that the 2024 budget was padded with N3. 7 trillion, but the Senate denied such a claim.
Speaking further, Adaramodu said there was nothing like budget padding, stressing that the claim by Ningi was a demonstration of the error of arithmetic and innocence of procedure by the protagonists of budget padding.
The Senate spokesman asserted that the Red Chamber needed to be treasured as a pillar of democracy and would only do what would promote national interest.
He said: “The N3 trillion is for statutory transfers of government agencies on the first lines charges.
“It is a matter of integrity. The issue of the budget has been put to rest as the protagonists of the budget padding were called to substantiate, and they could not prove it, but the allegations can not just go without being attended to.
“The Appropriation Act is a public document, and when it was done, it was done in the public glare, and it was N28.77 trillion, and so for some to say N25 trillion was what was approved is scary.
“Statutory transfers for agencies on first line charges, that are not domiciled in the ministries was what Mr Ningi said was padded, that the allocation cannot be traced.”
He listed the agencies to include Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Public Complaints Commission, National Judicial Council, North East Development (NEDC), and Niger Delta Development Commission Commission (NDDC), among others.
