Senate postpones passage of 2016 budget

Despite the promise of the National Assembly to lay report of the 2016 budget on Thursday, March 17, presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, ,the Senate failed to do so.
The budget was not seen on the Order Paper for matters to be treated for the day. In an interview with newsmen, a joint committee on media and publicity said the passage of the budget was postponed due to errors and reoccurring figures. Abdullahi and his colleague, however, assured Nigerians that the budget would be laid and passed on Tuesday next week because the National Assembly would not pass a budget that would be full of errors. “As far as we are concerned, we have not failed. What is happening is the seriousness with which we take the 2016 appropriation.
It’s such that we cannot also afford to make errors that will become very costly to this nation. “We have finished all 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.
“The two appropriation committees (of both chambers) 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,” Abdullahi said,
The Senate on Wednesday, March 16 had promised that the budget will be laid on the floor of the Senate in the National Assembly. This was disclosed by Senator Abdulahi Sabi, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media And Public Affairs in an interview with newsmen.
He noted that with the laying of the 2016 proposals all other aspects are purely administrative. President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2016 national budget before a joint session of the National Assembly, comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives on December 22, 2015. Since then, there have been controversies surrounding the authenticity of the budget submitted, which has dragged on for a while.
Meanwhile, five bills were presented on the floor of the Senate. The bills are labour institutions bill 2016, National farm settlement and youth empowerment bill 2016 and Consumer protection council act CAP C25 LFN 2004 (amendment) bill, 2016. Others are the occupational safety and health bill 2016, the National lottery act 2005 (amendment) bill 2016 and Chartered institute of management accountant bill 2016.