The National Assembly has postponed indefinitely,the passage of the budget, due largely to what it described as gross distortions and padding in the 2016 budget proposal submitted by President Muhammad Buhari.
The lawmakers had earlier slated the passage of the budget for February 25, but said they had to put it off, describing the situation where the Civil Servants in the various ministries are not in agreement with their ministers as strange figures have been padded in the budget.
Two recent scenarios which tend to support the lawmakers position started last week, when the Senate Committee on Education uncovered N10 billion that was smuggled into the sector’s budget.
On Monday, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, raised another dust, when he told the Senate Committee on Health that the budget it was working with is a fake document, promising to send authentic one.
Announcing the postponement on Tuesday, the Joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation Co- chaired by Senator Danjuma Goje and Hon. Jibrin Abdulmumini, said a lot of issues bothering on paddling and over bloated overhead came to the fore during the budget defence.
Hon. Jibrin said there was need for the lawmakers to do a thorough job hence, the decision to postpone the passage.
“We are here in connection with the ongoing processing of the 2016 budget Defence and because these two committees are the one saddled with the production of the final copies of the budget that would be passed by the two houses for onward submission to Mr. President for his asset and subsequent implementation.
“And because of the observed instances that are being reported from the beginning of the budget submission there are a lot of controversies surrounding the budget.
“We feel that we have to come here, interact with you, make some clarifications that Nigerians we know the correct situation of things regarding the 2016 budget.
“We designed a timetable for the consideration and passage of the budget and that particular timetable that we will pass the budget on February 25, 2016 but as you are all aware, a lot of issues have come up and gladly so even the Executive arm of government have also come out to accept the fact that there has been a lot of errors in the budget.
“Again during the budget Defence a lot of issues based on the padding of the budget arising from over bloated overhead and in some instances, cases of over bloated personnel cost. But generally there have been a lot of issues. The appropriation committee would look at these issues after the whole budget Defence to do a very thorough work aim at doing a proper cleanup of the budget.
“To liaise with all the stakeholders to enable us pass the budget that is implementable. Budget that is is hood from the perspective of the legislature and also acceptable to the Executive arm of the government.
“So in summary, the timetable for the passage of the budget is no longer realistic because appropriation committees of both chambers of the National Assembly need additional time to be able to do a thorough job for the 2016 budget.
“The joint committees on Appropriation wouldn’t like the budget to be thrown back to it based on some ambiguities. We want to remove all ambiguities; we want to remove all paddings. We want to produce a budget that is in line with the constitutional requirement.
“Again, in terms of capital expenditure, there are complaints coming from different quarters arising from the imbalance from the capital allocation and of course disagreement among the Ministers and the Civil Servants in the various ministries that we have witnessed during the period of budget Defence.
“These all together form enough basis for us to sit down and ensure that a thorough job is done before the budget is passed.”
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