NASS Appropriates N25 Billion For Car Parks, Recreation Centre, Hospital

The National Assembly is to construct car parks for both the Senate and House of Representatives and a recreation Centre for the Assembly at the cost of N10 billion in the 2024 budget estimate approved by the lawmakers on Saturday. 

This is as the lawmakers made an astronomical increase in the budget estimate from N197.93 billion presented by the President to N333.85 billion, while the budget of the National Judicial Council was also increased from N165 billion to N341.63 billion.  

N6 billion of the amount is to be used for the construction of two separate car parks for the lawmakers, while N4 billion will be used to construction the recreation centre. 

A special provision of N30 billion was made for the FCDA in the budget for the completion of ongoing renovation work in the two chambers of the National Assembly as well as another N20 billion for the completion of office complex of the National Assembly Service Commission aside the N10 billion provided for the project in the busget of the National Assembly.

The lawmakers have also earmarked about N15 billion to build a National Assembly Hospital.

A study of the statutory transfers contained in the budget revealed that the budget of the Universal Basic Education Commission was increased from N251.47 billion to N263. 04 billion, while that of the Niger Delta Development Commission was also increased from N324. 8 billion to N338.9 billion. 

The Public Complaint Commission, got a marginal increased in its budget, while the North East Development Commission, Basic Health Care Provision Fund and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure also got marginal increased in their budget. 

However, the budget of N40 billion given to the Independent National Electoral Commission was retained, while the National Human Rights Commission budget of N5 billion did not change. 

The capital budget of the Ministry of Works was increased by the lawmakers from about N521 billion to about N892 billion. 

However, for the first time, the lawmakers provided a breakdown of how it intend to spend its budget. 

The National Assembly bureaucracy captured under the subhead of National Assembly Office got N36.727 billion, the Senate was allocated N49.144 while the House of Representatives got N78.624 billion. 

In addition, National Assembly Service Commission was allocated N12.325 billion, Legislatives Aides (N20.388 billion), Public Accounts Committee of both the Senate and House of Representatives were allocated N130 million and N150 million respectively. 

The Legislative arm is budgeting N30.807 billion for general services and N15. 188 billion for Service Wide Vote. 

The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies NILDS) has two like item in the budget N9.008 billion qnd another  and another N4.5 billion for the completion of its headquarters complex along Airport Road, Abuja. 

The Office of Retired Clerks and Permanent  Secretaries was allocated N1.230 billion, while Appropriation Committees of the Senate and the House got N200 million each. 

The newly completed Nass Library Complex got a take off grant N12.123 billion qnd another N3 billion for the procurement of Books, while the Assembly is to spend N9.9 billion on liabilities and N1 billion on Constitution review. 

Also, Construction of NASC building which is an ongoing project is to gulp N10 billion, while they plan to spend about N4 billion on solar power system to serve as alternative Power Supply. 

Other allocations include NASS Zonal Liaison Offices (N3 billion) , NASS Pension Board (!N2.5 billion take off grant), Nass Car Park Project – Senate (N3 billion), Nass Car Park Project – House of Representatives (N3 billion), Nass Hospital Project (N15 billion), Nass Recreation Centre (N4 billion). 

The budget for the National Assembly also include Furnishing of Committee Meeting Rooms & other Offices within the Senate Building (N2.7 billion), Furnishing of Committee Meeting Rooms For House Representatives Building Part I & II (N3 billion), Upgrade of NASS Key Infrastructures (N3 billion), Design, Construction, Furnishing and Equipping of NASS Ultramodern Printing Press (N3 billion) and Design, Construction, Furnishing and Equipping of the National Assembly Budget & Research Office (N4 billion).

However, no provision was made in the budget for Tertiary Institutions Revitalization, Provision of Radio-Diagnostic Centres at Selected Federal Tertiary Hospitals and the NA Laboratory in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and National Hospital Abuja.