Ndubuisi Francis and Omololu Ogunmade
The fate of the 2016 budget remained up in
the air yesterday, as both chambers of the
National Assembly again failed to fulfill their
promise to lay the document, blaming it on
the non-completion of its harmonisation by
the joint Appropriation Committees of the
federal legislature.
Speaking with journalists on Wednesday, the
Senate spokesman, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had
assured Nigerians that the budget would be
laid yesterday, preparatory to its eventual
passage on Tuesday, March 22.
But the promise was not kept, thus making it
the third time the National Assembly would
renege on its promise to pass or lay the
budget in the past six weeks.
The National Assembly had at the
commencement of legislative work on the
budget in February assured the nation that it
would pass the 2016 budget on February 25.
But about a week to the deadline, the
Chairmen of Appropriation Committees of
both the Senate and House of
Representatives, Danjuma Goje and
Abdulmumin Jibrin, said its passage on
February 25 was no longer feasible in view
of the errors and wide-scale discrepancies in
the budget.
Subsequently, the two men at another press
briefing, announced March 17 as the new
date for the passage of the budget.
But 24 hours to the rescheduled date, both
chambers again gave excuses on why the bill
could not be passed, saying it would only be
laid yesterday towards its eventual passage
next week.
But much to the disappointment of many, the
budget was not slated in the order papers of
both houses yesterday.
Briefing the press later, Abdullahi and his
counterpart in the House of Representatives,
Abdulrazak Namdas, blamed the budget
debacle on “data cleansing and integration”.
While giving excuses for not meeting
yesterday’s deadline, Abdullahi defended the
National Assembly, saying it had not failed.
He also failed to make a categorical
statement on the budget’s passage next week,
claiming that the delay was meant to avoid
the passage of an Appropriation Bill that
would be un-implementable and appealed to
Nigerians to be patient.
“You will recall we promised Nigerians that
by today, March 17, we will be able to pass
the 2016 Appropriation Bill. Yesterday
(Wednesday), I also confirmed to you that
today, that same Appropriation Bill will be
laid, barring any last minute technical
hitches.
“We are here to let you know that as of
today, we are unable to lay the 2016
Appropriation Bill and thus we are hoping
that next week that process will be completed.
When I briefed you, I recalled you were
asking if the passage will be done by next
week. And we said ‘yes.’
“When you lay the budget, the next thing is
for you to discuss the budget and get it
passed. The two activities will be carried out
next week God willing. And let me pre-empt
you because I know you will say perhaps we
have failed to keep our promise.
“But as far as we are concerned, we have not
failed. What is happening is the seriousness
with which we take the 2016 Appropriation
Bill. It’s such that we cannot also afford to
make errors that will become very costly to
this nation.
“We have finished all the necessary work
within the context of the various committees.
But remember, when you do the paper work,
you have to also get people who will sit down
and check what we call data cleansing and
integration, that is, the two appropriation
committees must integrate. That is the
essence of what you call harmonisation.
“This is something very technical and tedious
and if you recall, this is a very voluminous
document. So, in our own understanding, we
don’t want to rush just because we want to
keep to a promise that today the budget must
be passed.
“What we owe Nigerians is a budget that is
implementable, a budget that will kick-start
the reflation of our national economy. It’s a
budget that will help to create jobs and
therefore stimulate our economic rebirth.
“So, that is what we have seen as a key
objective and I want to assure you that for
those of you who know statistics, in
everything you do, you must give freedom for
a margin of error. And within this context, if
next week, we are able to take this, then
within that margin of error, the National
Assembly is still on course,” he said.
The Senate spokesman asked for the
understanding of Nigerians, adding that the
National Assembly was as eager as the rest of
the country to get the budget passed.
Echoing Abdullahi, Namdas said the decision
to avoid costly mistakes was the underlying
reason behind the National Assembly’s
inability to pass the budget.
He also said that the National Assembly
would rather pass a bill that would be
celebrated than the one that would not serve
the nation’s interest.
Despite the inability of the National Assembly
to pass the 2016 Appropriation Bill yesterday
as promised, the parliament was still within
the timeline it set for itself to pass the
budget, a top official in the Ministry of
Budget and National Planning said yesterday.
Reacting to the postponement, the official
said there was no cause for alarm, as the
parliament was still within the timeframe it
promised to pass the Appropriation Bill.
“It is not an issue because it is still within the
timeframe promised by the National
Assembly to pass the budget in March. The
National Assembly is doing its work on the
budget as required by law. I think that’s what
they are trying to do as far as legislative
business is concerned.
“It is not an issue since the 2015 capital
budget spending is still on till March 31,
2016. Note also that the government can
spend a certain percentage of last year’s
budgetary provision in the first six months of
the succeeding year. So no cause for alarm,”
the source told THISDAY by phone.
The 2016 Appropriation Bill, which was
submitted to a joint session of the National
Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari
on December 22, 2015 has been fraught with
controversies, ranging from the budget’s
disappearance to the irregularities contained
in the expenditure proposal.
No fewer than 184 top government officials
from various ministries, departments and
agencies (MDA) of the federal government
were last week redeployed in a major shake-
up triggered by the controversy over the
2016 budget.
The flaws in the budget proposal have not
only led to the delay in its passage by the
National Assembly, they also claimed a major
casualty when Buhari sacked the former
Director-General of the Budget Office of the
Federation, Mr. Yahaya Gusau, replacing him
with Mr. Tijjani Abdullahi. ThisDay
No comments:
Post a Comment