The Senate has stated that ministers and heads of government agencies and departments are delaying passage of 2018 appropriation bill, threatening to take a major legislative decision against those who have refused to either submit details of their 2018 budget proposal or their amendments as requested by Senate committees.
Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sonny Ogbuoji (Ebonyi-PDP) made this known while briefing other lawmakers on the status of the 2018 budget on Wednesday.
Ogbuoji pointed out that despite the February 14 a one-week ultimatum to 63 government agencies who are yet to submit details of their 2018 budget proposals, most heads of agencies have refused to interface with the Senate committees for consideration of the proposals.
“Most of the subcommittees have huge challenges with the MDAs because majority of them are not coming forward to interface with them. Some of them, ministers, they will tell you they are travelling out of the country and because of them, the MDAs are not fully ready.
“Again, some of the MDAs, when asked to go back and work on what they brought, they don’t come back. And that is really delaying the work. That is why we don’t have a comprehensive report up till today,” he said.
The lawmakers consequently resolved to give another a one-week ultimatum to the MDAs after which, “the committees will work only with the appropriation as submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
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