Senate spokesman, Senator Abdullahi unsure of when 2017 Budget will be laid

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, has admitted he is not sure when the 2017 Appropriation Bill will be laid in the upper chambers.

There were speculation that the document would be laid today, but Senator Abdullahi, who is also a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations said it is not ready.

“They are doing the harmonisation, data cleaning, just trying to do due diligence to make sure everything is fully in place.

“That’s the most critical stage because it is a thorough, painstaking job. If you notice today, you didn’t see the chairman appropriation in the chamber and they are working very hard on it.

“I cannot confirm when it will be laid. All I know is that they are working very hard to make sure everything is put in place. It is something that if we make one mistake, it’s a whole document and it’s a bulky documents with thousands of pages,” he said.

When Senator Abdullahi was asked that the extension of the 2016 budget to May 5, 2017 will expire this week, he replied: “If you check, it’s May 5 and we are going to catch up and there’s no problem. We are very much aware of all these things, that’s why you saw us coming so that the right thing will be done to get things working.

“There’s no politician who will not want to make progress because we are the one at the receiving end. We are more than worried and we really want everything to happen well.”