Details of 2016 budget ready in 2 weeks –National Assembly

From Kemi Yesufu, Abuja

CHAIRMAN of the House of Representatives Com­mittee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin assured yesterday that details of the 2016 budget would be ready in two weeks.

There have been con­troversies over the delay of President Muhammadu Bu­hari in assenting to the bud­get. A source told Daily Sun that the president was hesi­tant to assent to the bill over lack of details.

But, in a statement yes­terday, Jibrin said “there is nothing abnormal” for the president to assent to the bill before receiving its details. The lawmaker explained that there were inconsistencies and anomalies in budget, hence, the need for a thor­ough job to be done on it.

“We wish to make some clarifications, following me­dia reports suggesting that withholding of assent to the 2016 appropriation bill by the presidency is due to the failure of the national assem­bly to send the budget details to the presidency alongside the appropriation bill,” Ji­brin said.

“Ordinarily, the National Assembly should not have responded to the issues raised, but, we are duty-bound to put the issues into perspective and put records straights even though we doubt very much if the Presi­dency will issue such state­ment knowing full well the challenges the budget has faced so far.

“The general public should note that the MTEF and 2016 budget proposal came to NASS very late. You will also recall that a lot of dust was raised over dif­ferent versions of the budget circulated in the national as­sembly. Further, some min­isters disowned the content of the budget during defense before NASS.

“Amid these inconsis­tencies and discrepancies, the NASS had been deeply engrossed in perfecting the anomalies, ironing out of the wrinkles and stretching the twists inherent in the 2016 appropriation bill.”

“In order for the nation to move forward and avoid stagnation of administra­tive processes, the tradition is that the bill is passed and forwarded to the presidency for assent, while the law­makers continue to work on the details. There is nothing abnormal about this practice and yet nothing abnormal about a president assenting a budget before or after see­ing the details. In any case, the budget details are usually sent within a week or two af­ter passing the budget.

“In view of the inconsis­tencies, errors, omissions and padding that charac­terised the 2016 budget, it would be unpatriotic of NASS to forward the budget details without being extra-careful, meticulous and cau­tious in discharging its du­ties. This is to ensure we do not make same mistakes that the executive made.

“The appropriation com­mittee needs to scrutinise the original proposal sent by the president vis-à-vis the reports of various standing committees of the house of representatives and the senate to arrive at a clean copy of the budget details. This will, in no way, affect any envelop already passed or the aggregate ex­penditure.

“The NASS holds the president in high esteem and will continue to support him. There were several in­stances where we demon­strated our support to the present administrations in the past.”

“The NASS appropria­tion committees worked round the clock to address some of the omissions, bring up to date alloca­tions in the budget towards the policy direction of Mr. President, particularly is­sues relating to security, an­ti-corruption and economic diversification.