Budget: NASS not in competition with Executive – Mark

The Senate President, Senator David Mark, said on Monday that observations raised by the National Assembly over the poor implementation of budget was constitutional.
Mark stated this at a workshop for civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations on “Budget Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting” in Abuja.
A statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President, Paul Mumeh, said that the National Assembly was neither combative nor competing with the executive arm of government on issues of the budget.
Mark said: “When we ask questions about implementation of budget, we are merely exercising our constitutional powers of appropriation and oversight to expose corruption, inefficiency or administration of laws within its legislative competence.
“Our role in budgeting should not be misunderstood to mean meddling into the functions of the executive. We represent the people and we owe it a duty to let them know.”
The statement quoted Mark as saying that the 1999 Constitution was clear on the functions of each arm of government and that the principle of separation of powers should be respected at all times.
It urged them to make accuracy their watchword in budget monitoring, adding that democracy, accountability and rule of law would be enhanced when their reports were independent and unbiased.