2016 Budget Full Of Errors Document Can No Longer Be Passed

Senator Goje noted that the Presidency had also admitted that there were errors in the budget, explaining that it would be inappropriate to give a new date now due to the errors that they would have to work on.

The two arms of the National Assembly, NASS, declared, yesterday that the 2016 budget was full of errors, saying the document could no longer be passed on February 25 2016 as earlier promised.

This came on a day the Senate Committee on Gas Resources rejected the N200 million allocation demanded by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in the budget for the treatment of Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and another N200 million for a review of Nigeria Gas Master Plan.

Similarly, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, yesterday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to save the country the national embarrassment being caused by the 2016 budget he presented to the National Assembly by formally withdrawing and representing it.

Budget can’t be passed, say Goje, Jibrin Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Jibrin Abdulmumin, who disclosed this at a briefing, said the budget was fraught with too many errors, which had made its passage into law impossible.

Goje said: “We are here in connection with the ongoing processing of the 2016 Budget because these two committees are the ones saddled with the production of the final copies of the budget that would be passed by the National Assembly for onward submission to Mr President for his assent and subsequent implementation. 

“We want to remove all ambiguities we want to remove all paddings. We want to produce a budget that is in line with the constitutional provision. During the budget defence, a lot of issues based on the padding of the budget, arising from over-bloated overheads and in some instances cases of over-bloated personnel cost.