Finally, Senate, House of Reps receive 2016 budget report

The two arms of the National Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, have received the report of their respective Appropriations Committees on the 2016 budget. The report was laid at both chambers on Tuesday, ending weeks of adjournment.

At the Senate, Danjuma Goje (APC-Gombe), who leads the Committee on Appropriations, laid the report. Mr. Goje’s House of Representatives’ counterpart, Abdulmumin Jibrin, also submitted the report to the lower legislative body.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the budget would be passed this week and would be transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent. The N6.08 trillion budget was presented to a joint session of the National Assembly in December 2015.

But its passage was delayed for months amid controversies over questionable proposals. Also, the Senate received report of the Conference Committee on 2016, 2017 and 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper. The MTEF/FSP conference report was laid by John Enoh.

Earlier, the finance committees of the two chamber’s had met to harmonise the discrepancies in their respective reports before adopting a harmonised version. However, the report was not submitted at the House of Representatives.

The House hurriedly adjourned after receiving the budget report from Mr. Jibrin in honour Musa Onwana (APC- Nasarawa State) who died last Thursday at the age of 50. Before its adjournment, the House held a special prayer session for the deceased.

Similarly, the Senate also suspended plenary in honour of the departed Mr. Onwana, following a motion to that effect by the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume. The motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio.

But before the Senate suspended plenary, Mr. Ndume laid the audit report from the Auditor General of the Federation which was released to the public last Monday.