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WORRIED by the apparent poor per-formance of the 2009 Budget, the House of Representatives yesterday asked President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to furnish it with the number of contracts so far awarded in line with the Appropriation Act. The president is also to explain to the lawmakers, why he had directed ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs] to stop further award of contracts.

Also, the House threatened to pass a vote of no confidence on any minister, or heads of departments and agencies that embark on selective implementation of the 2009 Appropriation Act as passed by the National Assembly.

These resolutions were reached at plenary after an exhaustive debate on the performance of the 2009 budget, following a motion of urgent national interest brought on the floor by Chairman of House Committee on Gas Resources, Igo Aguma.

Accordingly, the House also mandated all its standing committees to ascertain the level of performance of each ministry, department and agency through oversight, and to report their findings within two weeks.

But in a curious development, yesterday’s plenary session presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Usman Bayero Nafada was almost marred by a disagreement between two members, Chukwuka Onyema and Bernard Udo, resulting in a fisticuff in which three journalists were manhandled by Sergeant-At-Arms who were trying to cover up the sordid act.

The duo, however, explained that their action was a carry over of their contributions on the floor of the House during the debate on a motion.

Aguma in his lead debate on the motion titled; “Poor performance of the 2009 Appropriation Act,’ regretted that the desired outcome of the budget passed by the National Assembly which is full implementation was never so, regretting that several projects earmarked in the 2009 Appropriation Act had not been initiated, even after they had been advertised in the newspapers.

He alleged that there was deception on the level of implementation by the concerned agencies; an action he explained was giving the federal government a bad name. Darlington Onuabunchi, in his contribution pointed out that the budget might be heading for a crash, pointing out that there was need for the House to make the executive arm to sit up.

In his contribution to debates on the motion, James Joseph Idachaba also expressed disappointment over the non-implementation of constituency projects approved for members since 2008, adding that the situation had become an embarrassment to members, who said could no longer hold their heads high in their respective constituencies.

Efforts by Independence Ogunewe and Nelson Belief who moved that the motion be stood down on the ground that impinges on an earlier mandate given to the Finance and Appropriation committees of the House to investigate the level of performance of the budget, and that mere suspension of a project does not mean its cancellation, however could not stop members from voting in favour of the motion.

Meanwhile, the House has also mandated its Committee on Legislative Compliance to ensure that resolution number; HR./37/2008 which had directed all MDAs to either halt online recruitments, or ensure that hard copies of recruitment forms are made available to applicants in who may have no access to the internet.

In its resolution of the House on a motion brought on the floor by Mr. Paul Adah, all MDAs have equally been directed to ensure that no fewer than five commercial banks should be used when scratch cards for such recruitment exercises.