The two chambers of the National Assembly on Thursday passed the budget amendments as proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan, restoring all the cuts they made to the original 2013 Appropriation Bill before passing the budget last year.
The Senate passed the amendments as submitted by the President without any alteration.
Similarly, the House of Representatives passed the amendment proposals as presented by Jonathan.
It also expressed concern over local contractor’s debts, which stood at N74.6bn as of October 2012.
The lawmakers restored the over N78bn they had earlier slashed from the N4.9tn budget submitted by the President and passed in December 2012.
The cuts in the budget had been the subject of disagreement between the Presidency and the National Assembly since March.
For instance, the lawmakers had cut about N34bn from the personnel cost and another N9bn from the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme.
The allocations for the capital projects of several Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government were also cut.
The funds were, however, restored on Thursday, with the affected MDAs getting back their original allocations.
An additional N273.5bn that the President proposed for the SURE-P was also passed on Thursday.
The House also resolved to investigate alleged land racketeering in the Federal Capital Territory from 2010 to date.
A member from Taraba State, Mr. Ibrahim El-Sudi, who sponsored a motion on the issue, alleged that the mass housing schemes and land-swap scheme of the FCT Administration had been abused by officials.
“There are many companies that have been allocated land for these schemes. Some of these companies have no evidence of registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission,” he stated.
The House set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the alleged racketeering and produce a report within four weeks.
Similarly, the House ordered an investigation into the mounting local contractors’ debt put at over N74.6bn.
The Chairman, House Committee on Debts, Loans and Aids, Mr. Adeyinka Ajayi, told members that the figure was separate from the aggregate domestic debt profile of N6.1tn.
Ajayi said the nation’s foreign debt stood at $6.7bn.
Members of both chambers of the National Assembly thereafter proceeded on their annual recess shortly after passing the amendment proposals.
The recess will last for six weeks.
President of the Senate, David Mark, thanked members for their hard work during the period and wished them a good rest during the recess.