President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered all the ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, to thoroughly review the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly last week, before it is forwarded to him for assent.
A presidency official, who informed ThisDay that the directive was to ascertain if any significant amendments were made by the Legislature that are inconsistent with the spending plan of the Executive, said that the process of reviewing the budget should not take more than a week or two, after which Buhari would sign the bill into law.
According to him, “We hope to get the budget this week from the legislature immediately after the Easter holiday. But before the president assents to it, he has directed that it should be sent to all the MDAs to double check it to ensure that there were no significant amendments or errors that could adversely affect the implementation of the budget.
“It is only when this is done and the president is satisfied that there were no material alterations that are not consistent with the objectives of this administration, then he would assent to it.”
“However, if there are significant alterations, it may have to be sent back to the National Assembly until a compromise is reached on what should be passed in the budget,” the source told the newspaper yesterday.
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