Tuesday’s Senate resumption of plenary from two weeks recess without 2016 budget on the Order Paper for debate is heightening curiosity as to what might have gone wrong as some Senators have alleged that the budget is nowhere to be found at the National Assembly.
DAILY POST gathered that the budget documents that were laid by President Muhammadu Buhari early December, 2015 have not been duplicated for distribution to Senators and members of the House of Representatives due to paucity of funds, a situation that has created a wild speculation in some quarters that it has been withdrawn or got missing from the senate.
A member of the House of Representatives who pleaded anonymity told DAILY POST that there was no resources for the Committee to work on those documents for circulation to all members.
“I can confirm to you that those in rules and Business don’t have resources to make copies available for us to begin studying it, but don’t quote my name,” he insisted.
Against expectations that the budget would be mentioned, the Senate earlier in the day met behind closed doors for two hours which DAILY POST later gathered that logistics problems dominated the discussions while some Senators expressed concerns that if nothing was done to hasten budget debate, curious Nigerians would be taking on the National Assembly.
Though the Senate President had in his welcome address reiterated Senate’s commitment to passing the budget bill into law as quickly as possible, a member of Senate Committee on Appropriations who pleaded anonymity noted that it has been a busy holiday, hence, they don’t have time studying the documents yet.
“We have been on holiday and there was no time yet” he said.
”Thus, it is a tradition that once the budget is laid, it would be referred to joint Committees on Finance and Appropriations for sector by Sector analysis,” he said.
Other reports have, however, claimed that the budget was missing and that the senate’s executive meeting today was dominated by the whereabouts of the budget.
Efforts to speak with the Senate Committee Chairman, Danjuma Goje was unsuccessful.
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