David Mark

Olaolu Olusina

The Due Process Office may be re-examining the N60 billion constituency projects of the 2012 budget with a view to preventing similar projects from hindering full implementation of the Appropriation Act in future.

A source who made this known at the weekend said while some of the projects were viable, several others were initiated to create “job for the boys” and to further the political interests of some lawmakers, especially in federal constituencies.

‘’The truth of the matter is that many of the projects the lawmakers are worrying about are not implementable. They are not well thought-out projects and many of them cannot scale through due process”, the source said.

Lamenting  that some agencies had difficulties implementing that aspect of the budget, the source attributed this to the fact that the Due Process Office had been practically handicapped in respect of some of those projects so as not to create impression that the executive was against the legislature.

Noting the face-off between the executive and he legislature, particularly the House of Representatives, which gave the President ultimatum on the implementation of the 2012 budget,  the source said implementation of the budget would not have been an issue had some constituency projects in the capital expenditure not been included.

“Many senators  initiated credible projects but questions  are hanging on projects of many federal constituencies”, the source said, adding, government may be forced to seek judicial interpretation of Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution, with regards to power of appropriation, should the  controversy over implementation of the budget continue.