N'Assembly Passed Budget, Still Working On Same Budget

The National Assembly is still working on the 2016 budget, a week after it passed the appropriation bill.

Members of the Senate Committee on Appropriation met for hours in the office of their Chairman, Senator Danjuma Goje, it was learnt on Wednesday, to continue the scrutiny of the 2016 budget, which sources say was hurriedly passed on March 23.

Punch gathered that the Senate, at plenary, passed the 2016 Appropriation Bill last week to calm frayed nerves over the document but it was learnt that the committee had yet to conclude work on the bill.

A member of the committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intention of the Senate was to transmit highlights of the 2016 budget to the President while work continued on the details, which he claimed was full of errors and repetition.

He said, “We were in a fix a few days to the passage of the 2016 budget when the National Assembly Budget and Research Office brought copies of its booklet, which contained errors it said it discovered in the 2016 budget.

“We had to agree that highlights of the budget be passed and transmitted to the Presidency while we withhold the details so that we can cross-check the claims of NABRO in the booklet.

“From the look of things, it will take another two to three weeks for us to conclude work on the budget. We are not alone, financial experts are also involved in the scrutiny.”

On its part, the House of Representatives said Presidency would only get the full details of the 2016 budget in the next one week.