Annual Budget Statement

Article 82(2) of the Constitution stipulated that so much of the Annual Budget Statement as related to ''other expenditure" shall be submitted to the National Assembly in the form of demands for grants, and the Assembly shall have power to assent to, or to refuse to assent to, any demand, or to assent to any demand subject to a reduction of the amount specified therein

Article 82(3) of the Constitution specifically mandated that "no demand for a grant shall be made except on the recommendation of the Federal Government"

Rule 183 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly, 2007, provided as to how a demand for the grant was to be made, and stated that each demand for a grant should contain "details of estimate" and, furthermore, the demand should also show "the various items comprising the subject of the grant"

Item-wise estimate of the grant was required to be placed before the National Assembly for discussion in terms of R.186 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly, 2007

Discussion and voting on the demands for grants in the Budget cannot take place unless the details of each grant in terms of its item-wise estimate was included in the demand.

Policy or practice adopted by Parliamentarians to place funds in the hands of the Prime Minister to be used/allocated by him at his discretion to Members of National/Provincial Assemblies or Notables, was repugnant to the Constitution

Language employed in Arts.80 to 84 of the Constitution implicitly excluded person-specific allocations of funds

No constitutional provision permitted inclusion of any scheme or expenditure at the behest of any Member of National/Provincial Assembly or Notable or any other person during the currency of a financial year, unless it was necessitated by a totally unforeseen contingency arising out of extraordinary circumstances which needed to be met on an urgent basis

However, it would be a different matter if prior to the preparation of the Annual Budget Statement a Member of National/Provincial Assembly, Non-Government Organization and/or any other person from a constituency was called upon to identify schemes or expenditure that might be required for effecting necessary development in their area of concern

Such an exercise, however, would have to be across the board, irrespective of the political party or parties that might be in power, and it should be carried out much before the preparation of the Annual Budget Statement so that if the relevant scheme or expenditure was to be included in the Annual Budget Statement, it would have passed through the process of due consideration by the Planning Commission for purposes of ascertaining its necessity and efficacy and conducting its appraisal, technical analysis, feasibility and economic cost before it was included as a demand for grant in the Annual Budget Statement.