The National Assembly has assured that details of the 2016 budget would be ready in the next two weeks.
Addressing a news conference yesterday in Abuja, the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Rep Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC, Kano) said both the Senate and the House Committees on Appropriation were working to ensure this happened.
“At the moment, we are working on the details of the budget. We’ll take a week or two to work on the details. We are doing the final harmonization. We are looking at the various reports of the committees,” he said.
He said that there was nothing abnormal about the delay in the details as it was done in the past.
“We had instances where Obasanjo signed the budget without the details. Yar’Adua came and he preferred to see the details. So, if President Muhammadu Buhari prefers to see the details before assenting to the bill, I don’t think we should make a big deal out of it. It’s absolutely normal.”
Reacting to the fact that the 2015 budget would elapse this week, Jibrin said constitutionally, the President had the powers to authorize the spending of certain amounts of money out of the yet-to-be-assented 2016 budget.
“This is the most difficult budget we have ever dealt with. The MTEF and the budget came late. With all the challenges we had, I doubt if the executive would be throwing stones at the National Assembly.
“Even while we were dealing with all such realities, multiple budget details came up and we were able to manage the situation in a very friendly manner with the executive,” he added.
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