Fred Itua, Abuja

The Senate has said it would pass the N8.83 trillion 2019 budget proposal next month. President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, who presided at plenary, gave the Appropriations Committee a two-week ultimatum to turn in its budget report.

The Senate has also resolved to ignore ministers and other heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), who failed to appear before the various sub-committees, to defend their budget estimates.

Instead, it has resolved that it would adopt the original proposal submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari, to a joint session of the National Assembly. The upper chamber said unlike in the past, it will not run after heads of MDAs to come and defend their budget estimates.

The Senate took the decisions, following the conclusion of the debate on the general principles of the budget. It is expected to receive the report of the budget on April 2.

“The relevant committees must swing into action and ensure that they conclude work on this budget within two weeks. The Committee on Appropriations must submit this report on April 2, so that we can pass the budget.

“Let me also add that the various committees should not run or force any head of agencies to appear. If they don’t appear before the given time, adopt what was submitted by the President and submit your report. That is what you should do,” Saraki said.

Meanwhile, senators have kicked against the poor implementation of the 2018 budget just as it described the 2019 budget as an embarrassment to the nation.

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Contributing to the debate yesterday, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said it is a budget of consolidation of poverty. Abaribe said the budget cannot be implemented, as it is a waste of time.

Instead, he urged the Executive to send a fresh budget by September, to enable the National Assembly scrutinise the document.

“People who draft budgets for the President give it different names. They write it with their hands in cheek. It means we are paying more debt than spending on projects. When they say budget of consolidation, they are consolidating poverty. This budget will not be implementable.

“You can see that where we are is just consolidation of poverty. Let them leave this budget. Time is far spent. Let them bring a new budget by September. This budget is a waste of time. I don’t know the essence of this budget they have brought here. Let’s move on to something more important.”

Suleiman Adokwe, said poor allocation and releases to fund capital projects is a major challenge the Executive must tackle.

“My major problem with the budget is that, not much has been voted for capital projects. Year in, year out, we have the same poor allocation to capital projects. Agencies continue to waste money on recurrent expenditure. Even the release of funds for capital projects, has fallen below our expectations.

“There should be 100 percent release of funds for capital projects. There should also be monitoring of capital projects to ensure that monies released are not misappropriated,” he said.

Ben Murray Bruce, on his part, called for the scrapping of moribund agencies. He said some of them were established in the 1960s and had outlived their relevance. “This budget is not different from the one they presented three years ago. There are agencies that were set up in the 1960s. They should be scrapped. We have two percent of Nigerians who are civil servants consuming about 45 percent of our annual budget. We spend trillions on fuel subsidy, but isn’t in our budget. I don’t know what kind of voodoo accounting is this.