Following weeks of delay, the two chambers of the National Assembly have indicated that the 2016 National Budget will be passed today (March 23, 2016).
According to a Punch report, a budget report was delivered to the National Assembly on Tuesday from the Senate and the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Appropriation.
In the report, the corrected total budget figure stood at N6.07 trillion, as was previously presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly.
The report is said to have been presented at the floor of the upper chamber by Senator Danjuma Goje, Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, with Senator Aliyu Wamakko, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, confirming that the budget would be considered today
The Senate is set to hold a possible two sessions in order on Wednesday in order to consider and pass the fiscal document timeously.
“We have perfected necessary arrangements to ensure that the budget is considered and passed before we proceed on recess tomorrow (Wednesday),’’ Wamakko said.
In the House of Representatives, indications revealed that many lawmakers have raised doubts as to whether the report contained padded provisions.
“There were several meetings the officials held with the executive in their bid to clean up the errors in the budget.
“Those meetings did not provide details of the outcome; members still cannot vouch for this report, that it does not contain padded provisions in spite of the efforts made to clean up the budget,” a National Assembly official disclosed.
It has been gathered that suspicions over padded provisions were the reason behind the joint committees failure to to produce the report before the Tuesday.
The development follows a fresh group of discrepancies that were discovered within the budget document last week, delaying the passing of the Budget Bill even further.
Source: [Punch]
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