Senate: 2012 budget contains frivolous figures

The Senate is making efforts to slash the recurrent budgets proposed by the various ministries, departments and agencies for the 2012 fiscal year, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Maritime Senator Ewherido Akpor Pius (DPP, Delta Central) has said. Addressing newsmen at the weekend, the lawmaker said'People continue to complain about high cost of governance. We have so many parastatals, and we need to streamline them in order to streamline their budget demands. A lot of the committees of the Senate are doing so much in terms of getting more money for capital projects.'Some of the figures in the budget are frivolous, and where the recurrent bills are frivolous, a lot of cutting is going on. The Senate will not just accept the budget without looking at it very thoroughly. If we are to achieve a lower cost of governance, we would have to streamline a lot of things.'The lawmaker, who also stressed the need to collapse the current two-chamber National Assembly into one, said, 'The issue of unicameral legislature must be examined.
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