today-is-a-good-day
4.3 C
New York
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsEconomyI’ll scrutinise 2016 budget before assent - Buhari

I’ll scrutinise 2016 budget before assent – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he will take a critical look at the details of the 2016 Appropriation Bill as passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly before signing the document into law.

The president stated this yesterday in Washington DC at a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry. Buhari said that in view of the controversial alteration and padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the appropriation bill to be certain that its contents tallied with the authentic budget proposal presented to the National Assembly.

The presidency had, on Wednesday, disclosed that the president was afraid to sign the bill into law due to the failure of the National Assembly to send details of the document. Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a statement confirmed that “some bureaucrats removed what we put in the proposal and replaced it with what they wanted.”

“I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the National Assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign is in line with our original submission,” Buhari said.

While the Senate, last week, passed a budget of N6.06 trillion, the House of Representatives passed the appropriation bill with the same figure before proceeding on a two-week Easter vacation. The House, on Wednesday, confirmed that it will be transmitting details of the 2016 Appropriation Bill as passed to the president only in the next two weeks.

Advertisements

Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said there is no disagreement whatsoever between the executive and legislature on the 2016 Budget, which has been passed by the National Assembly.

“There is absolutely no rift, no issue of budget being sent back. Things are just taking their due course,” the minister said in Abuja yesterday when he visited the corporate headquarters of the Leadership newspaper, as part of his continuous engagement with stakeholders in the media industry.

He said it was not true that the president has refused to sign the Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly, adding: “It takes a few days (after the passage) for the National Assembly to clean up the document in readiness for the president’s assent.” Speaking further on the budget, Mohammed said when it is eventually signed into law; it will lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty, thanks to the six focal areas of social intervention contained therein

Advertisements

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

- Advertisment -

Most Popular

Recent Comments

Onuegbu Chuks Theophilus on Mikel Obi quits Super Eagles
Thomas H. Anderson on Roman Goddess_3
Oladimeji Emmanuel on Obama sends investors to Buhari