BARRING the unforeseen, the National Assembly will pass this year’s Appropriation Bill tomorrow.
It was learnt yesterday that the Appropriation Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives have been working round the clock to ensure the submission of budget reports to the two chambers tomorrow.
To avoid any form of harmonisation that will further delay the passage of the bill, both chambers plan to submit the same budget report.
On Tuesday last week, Senate President Bukola Saraki gave all sub-committees Wednesday deadline to submit their budget reports to the Appropriations Committee.
Saraki also mandated the Appropriation Committee to submit its budget report on April 11 for consideration and possible passage today.
But The Nation found out that the bill was not ready for submission for consideration at today’s plenary.
The Senate President had warned that the Appropriations Committee may be forced to use Executive submissions if the sub-committees failed to submit their reports to the Appropriations Committee by Wednesday.
Saraki described as unacceptable that only noted that only 24 out of 61 subcommittees committees had submitted their reports as at last week.
The budget item, curiously, was not listed on the Senate Order Paper on April 11.
A competent source told our reporter yesterday that “the Appropriation Committee is already putting finishing touches to its budget report for submission to the Senate in plenary on Wednesday (tomorrow).”
The source added that “barring any hiccup, the 2019 budget will be passed the same day.”
Source: The Nation Online
