The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, have promised early passage of the 2017 Appropriation Bill.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the signing ceremony of the 2016 budget at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Saraki called for early work on the 2017 budget in order to prevent the delays experienced with the 2016 budget.
He said: “One is the fact that the process will start early. Don’t forget the fact that the government only came in May of last year. We have a long time now to prepare. The government is in place, the new appointments and those in National Assembly are in place, I’m sure it will not be like thisý.
Saraki said the 2016 Budget will ensure that a minimum of 30 per cent goes into capital and boost the diversification policy of the government.
“Our journey here has been rather bumpy but I believe that that is not only in Nigeria. All over the world, the legislation on appropriation and budgeting is the most important legislation,” he said in reference to the controversy that attended the handling of the appropriation bill by the National Assembly.
President Buhari had returned the bill to the NASS after it was first submitted to him saying the breakdown of the budget details was not attached and that the budget was mutilated with many allocations reduced drastically or dropped entirely.
Saraki added that ”In all the democracies that we practise, there are always issues about passing the budget, policies, etc.
“We thank God that we have been able to come to this today in our country. I think that is a great achievement on the part of everybody.
“In other countries, even in the US that we copy, sometimes they close down government because they have not been able to achieve it.
“It is with a great satisfaction that we are here and it is by the efforts of people from both sides: Executive and Legislature.
“I think we have shown again that despite the challenges, we can work together as a government that has the interest of the people that have put us here at heart. We should look at the good side and more and forge ahead.
“Most important part after the signing of course is the implementation, to ensure that the benefits of Nigerians who waited are met.”
Also briefing State House correspondents at the occasion, Udoma said that the 2016 Budget adopted the same revenue assumptions of 38 dollars crude oil price while the size of the budget and the size of the deficit are also roughly the same with the proposal submitted.
To ensure no delays in 2017 Budget, he said that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a timetable for the 2017 budget two weeks ago.
He said: “Our intention is that the budget should reach the National Assembly early in October to give them enough time to pass the budget before the end of the year.
“Because as you know the most important time particularly for road construction and road works is of course the dry season, so if you can get the budget out in December, you can now start early to implement, so our intention is going forward to get us back to a situation where we can have a full January to December implementation for the budget.
“So we are working hard on the timetable to achieve this.It’s also going to be much more extensive consultation with the National Assembly prior to the budget being presented, extensive consultations with NGOs and that will help us to speed up the process of getting the budget approved.”
On implementation of the 2016 budget, he said: “Our own will always be one hundred percent implementation, we know that because we started late we may not achieve it but that is our aim, we will start off with that aim because the budget is a law so we will try and implement it as faithfully as we can. However the reality is that we may not because we started late.
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said that the government has developed a specific implementation guideline for the 2016 budget which will be submitted to all the MDAs.
“This will be vigorously monitored and reported upon on quarterly basis to the FEC. There are some checks in that implementation plan and we intend to follow through with the plan as fast as possible.” She added.
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