2018 Budget: Delay imminent as senators face-off with federal government officials

macfranc007 February 18, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Jerrywright Ukwu

- Almost two months into the year 2018, the budget is yet to be passed

- This is due to the face-off between the Nigerian Senate and some federal government officials

- The face-off is threatening to further delay the passage of the budget

A report by The Guardian indicates that the face-off between the Senate and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) over the latter’s failure to make budget details available to the National Assembly, may have dimmed any hope of an early approval of the N8.612trillion national budget.

According to the report, the upper legislative chamber is insisting that until it gets details of the MDAs budgets, the 2018 budget stands delayed.

Last week, the Senate gave a one-week ultimatum to all MDAs to submit the details of their budgets, adding that of the 64 federal agencies captured in the 2018 budget, only one has submitted its budget details to the National Assembly.

Budget 2018 suffers more setback as senators face-off with FG officials

The Nigerian Senate has insisted on thoroughly scrutinizing the 2018 Budget. Photo credit: SP media office

A member of the Senate appropriation committee, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, recently disclosed that the MDAs failure to submit the details might stall its early passage.

Ibrahim, who is also the chairman of the Senate committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions, further disclosed that the Senate might also ignore the MDAs and proceed with the submissions already made by President Muhammadu Buhari in the budget estimates, pointing out that the Senate would not continue to wait for the MDAs indefinitely.

Ibrahim said: “The speed at which the budget will be passed will depend on the seriousness of the MDAs. And that is why the Senate gave an ultimatum. But if the MDAs fail to come forward, the Senate will do the budget the way we feel is best for Nigeria. We can even ignore them and proceed to prepare the budget based on the president’s submission.

“You know that the president has already submitted his own budget proposal to us. So, if they don’t come to defend, we will deliver the judgment ourselves, working with the president’s estimate.”

He dismissed complaints by some ministers against figures allocated to their ministries saying that their complaints amounts to nothing since they have failed to honour invitations extended to them to defend their allocations.

Already, some senators are mobilising to seek more stringent sanctions that could result to halting further release of funds to the affected MDAs.

Senate President Dr Bukola Saraki, who gave the hint while ruling on a motion sponsored by the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, last Wednesday, February 14, condemned the affected MDAs for their non-cooperation with the lawmakers, stressing that the parliament would be forced to move against them if they failed to meet up with the deadline.

The situation is said to be the same in the House of Representatives, but the lower house, may have concluded arrangements to ensure the passage of the budget by the end of next month.

Already, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, has instructed the entire 96 standing committees to work round the clock to meet the deadline.

The chairman of the House committee on petroleum resources (downstream), Joseph Akinlaja, said the directive followed deliberate attempts by some MDAs to defend their budgetary allocations.

He described the development as a clear attempt to portray the National Assembly as not living up to its responsibilities in the passage of the budget on time.

“This is another form of blackmail that is intended to suggest that it is the parliament that is delaying the passage of the budget. Only one of the MDAs has submitted its details, while majority of them are yet to do the needful.

“This development is capable of delaying the passage of the budget, but we have a target. The Speaker has told us that all of us should work round the clock and make sure that we conclude work on it before the end of March.

“If the MDAs don’t come to defend their budget, we already have a budget proposal from Mr. President. So we can go ahead without them… if they are reluctant to come and defend their budgets, we would work on Mr. President’s proposal and amend where necessary and send it for assent,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday, February 13, ordered its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions to probe the scarcity of lower currency denominations in the country.

The lower denominations in insufficient supply are N5, N10, N20, N50, N100 and N200.

The Senate said the scarce denominations are critical to the economic growth of the country, especially as it recently recovered from recession.

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