As the controversy over the 2016 budget rages, it has emerged that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and his Power, Works and Housing counterpart, Babatunde Fashola are among a few powerful ministers who tinkered with their sectoral allocations.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters, Sen. Ita Enang was accused by the Senate of masterminding the substitution of the original budget laid by Buhari before the federal legislature on December 22, 2015.
He was said to have convinced the Clerk of the Senate to allow him substitute the budget surreptitiously but was rebuffed by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Mr. Sani Omolori who insisted that the budget was no longer the property of the Executive once it had been laid.
This explained why the House insisted that the budget was not missing while the senate discovered that the original copy by the president was replaced by Enang.
A reliable source however told ORDERPAPER.NG that the substitute document brought by Enang is said to contain tinkering of the original estimates by Amaechi and Fashola to reflect certain projections in the ministries that were not captured in the budget laid by the President.
Although it was not clear if the two powerful ministers secured the approval of their boss to tinker with budgetary allocations to their ministries, the source informed that the variations in the two documents was allegedly instigated by Ameachi and Fashola.
Meanwhile the senate spokesman has confirmed that President Buhari has written to the President of the Senate on the controversy over the budget.
He however declined to disclose the content of the letter saying the communication would be read on the floor of the senate Tuesday, January 19, 2016.
