The fate of the 2016 budget remained up
in the air yesterday, as both chambers of the National Assembly again
failed to fulfill their promise to lay the document, blaming it on the
non-completion of its harmonisation by the joint Appropriation
Committees of the federal legislature.
Speaking with journalists on Wednesday,
the Senate spokesman, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had assured Nigerians that
the budget would be laid yesterday, preparatory to its eventual passage
on Tuesday, March 22.
But the promise was not kept, thus
making it the third time the National Assembly would renege on its
promise to pass or lay the budget in the past six weeks.
The National Assembly had at the
commencement of legislative work on the budget in February assured the
nation that it would pass the 2016 budget on February 25.
But about a week to the deadline, the
Chairmen of Appropriation Committees of both the Senate and House of
Representatives, Danjuma Goje and Abdulmumin Jibrin, said its passage on
February 25 was no longer feasible in view of the errors and wide-scale
discrepancies in the budget.
Subsequently, the two men at another press briefing, announced March 17 as the new date for the passage of the budget.
But 24 hours to the rescheduled date,
both chambers again gave excuses on why the bill could not be passed,
saying it would only be laid yesterday towards its eventual passage next
week.
But much to the disappointment of many, the budget was not slated in the order papers of both houses yesterday.
Briefing the press later, Abdullahi and
his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Abdulrazak Namdas,
blamed the budget debacle on “data cleansing and integration”.
While giving excuses for not meeting
yesterday’s deadline, Abdullahi defended the National Assembly, saying
it had not failed. He also failed to make a categorical statement on the
budget’s passage next week, claiming that the delay was meant to avoid
the passage of an Appropriation Bill that would be un-implementable and
appealed to Nigerians to be patient.
“You will recall we promised Nigerians
that by today, March 17, we will be able to pass the 2016 Appropriation
Bill. Yesterday (Wednesday), I also confirmed to you that today, that
same Appropriation Bill will be laid, barring any last minute technical
hitches.
“We are here to let you know that as of
today, we are unable to lay the 2016 Appropriation Bill and thus we are
hoping that next week that process will be completed. When I briefed
you, I recalled you were asking if the passage will be done by next
week. And we said ‘yes.’
“When you lay the budget, the next thing
is for you to discuss the budget and get it passed. The two activities
will be carried out next week God willing. And let me pre-empt you
because I know you will say perhaps we have failed to keep our promise.
“But as far as we are concerned, we have
not failed. What is happening is the seriousness with which we take the
2016 Appropriation Bill. It’s such that we cannot also afford to make
errors that will become very costly to this nation.
“We have finished all the necessary work
within the context of the various committees. But remember, when you do
the paper work, you have to also get people who will sit down and check
what we call data cleansing and integration, that is, the two
appropriation committees must integrate. That is the essence of what you
call harmonisation.
“This is something very technical and
tedious and if you recall, this is a very voluminous document. So, in
our own understanding, we don’t want to rush just because we want to
keep to a promise that today the budget must be passed.
“What we owe Nigerians is a budget that
is implementable, a budget that will kick-start the reflation of our
national economy. It’s a budget that will help to create jobs and
therefore stimulate our economic rebirth.
“So, that is what we have seen as a key
objective and I want to assure you that for those of you who know
statistics, in everything you do, you must give freedom for a margin of
error. And within this context, if next week, we are able to take this,
then within that margin of error, the National Assembly is still on
course,” he said.
The Senate spokesman asked for the
understanding of Nigerians, adding that the National Assembly was as
eager as the rest of the country to get the budget passed.
Echoing Abdullahi, Namdas said the
decision to avoid costly mistakes was the underlying reason behind the
National Assembly’s inability to pass the budget.
He also said that the National Assembly
would rather pass a bill that would be celebrated than the one that
would not serve the nation’s interest.
Despite the inability of the National
Assembly to pass the 2016 Appropriation Bill yesterday as promised, the
parliament was still within the timeline it set for itself to pass the
budget, a top official in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning
said yesterday.
Reacting to the postponement, the
official said there was no cause for alarm, as the parliament was still
within the timeframe it promised to pass the Appropriation Bill.
“It is not an issue because it is still
within the timeframe promised by the National Assembly to pass the
budget in March. The National Assembly is doing its work on the budget
as required by law. I think that’s what they are trying to do as far as
legislative business is concerned.
“It is not an issue since the 2015
capital budget spending is still on till March 31, 2016. Note also that
the government can spend a certain percentage of last year’s budgetary
provision in the first six months of the succeeding year. So no cause
for alarm,” the source told THISDAY by phone.
The 2016 Appropriation Bill, which was
submitted to a joint session of the National Assembly by President
Muhammadu Buhari on December 22, 2015 has been fraught with
controversies, ranging from the budget’s disappearance to the
irregularities contained in the expenditure proposal.
No fewer than 184 top government
officials from various ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) of the
federal government were last week redeployed in a major shake-up
triggered by the controversy over the 2016 budget.
The flaws in the budget proposal have
not only led to the delay in its passage by the National Assembly, they
also claimed a major casualty when Buhari sacked the former
Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Yahaya
Gusau, replacing him with Mr. Tijjani Abdullahi.
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