• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

UPDATED: 2019 budget suffers further delay, as Senate keeps mum

Senate
Hopes of passing the N8.83 trillion 2019 Appropriations Bill by April 16 were dimmed on Thursday, as the Senate adjourned till next Tuesday without saying a word on the budget.
It would be recalled that Senate President Bukola Saraki had on Tuesday given the sub-committees till Wednesday (yesterday) deadline to submit their budget reports to the Appropriations Committee, which was in turn mandated to submit the budget report by Thursday (today) in readiness for the approval of the budget by Tuesday, April 16.
According to Saraki, the Appropriations panel would be forced to use Executive submissions if the sub-committees fail to submit their reports to the Appropriations Committee by Wednesday.
But at the resumption of plenary on Thursday, the budget item was not listed on the Order Paper, neither did Saraki say a word on the money bill.
Only the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, gave reason for the budget delay when he moved a motion for adjournment to enable sub-committees submit their report to the Appropriations Committee.
A source in the Committee revealed that sub-committees were still submitting their report, even as he expressed doubt if the budget would be passed before Easter.
The lawmaker disclosed that about 35 out of the 61 sub-committees have so far submitted their reports, adding that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are still defending their budgets before sub-committees. He, however, did not give the list of the sub-committees.
The Senate is set to adjourn by next Wednesday, ahead of the Easter festivities billed for next week.
“From the snail speed with which sub-committees are submitting their reports to us, I doubt if we can pass the budget by next week,” the senator who spoke on condition of anonymity, told BusinessDay.
However, our correspondent observed that despite the Wednesday deadline given by the Senate President for sub-committees to submit their reports, budget defence is still ongoing.
As of the time of updating this report at 4:50pm, the Ministry of Trade and Investment is still having budget defence with the joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Trade and Investments.
Indications that the budget would not be presented as promised first emerged on Thursday morning when the Senate Chief Whip, Sola Adeyeye (APC, Osun) observed that the upper legislative chamber lacked quorum for plenary to take place. According to him, only 19 senators were seated instead of a mimimum of 33 as stipulated by the constitution.
Although Saraki initially agreed with him and said he would adjourn the session, he later reversed himself after Lawan approached him for a tête-à-tête, despite not forming a quorum.
It was further gathered that another reason for the budget delay is to give the Appropriations panel more time to include the sum of N10 billion in the 2019 budget as intervention fund to cater for Internally Displaced Persons affected by the activities of armed bandits in Zamfara State.
This was one of the resolutions at Wednesday plenary following a motion moved by Kabiru Mafara (APC, Zamfara) on the rising insecurity in the state.
Raising a Point of Order during Thursday plenary, Marafa commended his colleagues for coming to their aid, even as he appealed to the Senate leadership to include the amount in the budget.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had submitted the N8.83 trillion budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly on December 19, 2018.

 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja