We will not pass 2016 budget as promised....N' assembly

Due to what has been termed padding and strange figures in the 2016 Budget, the National Assembly on Tuesday announced the indefinite postponement of its passage, which had been earlier slated for February 25.


T‎here were disagreements between the Ministers and civil servants in the various ministries during the budget defence over strange figures in the budget.

The latest was Monday’s request by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, to withdraw his Ministry’s budget over strange figures he detected in the copy with the Senate.

“So, in summary, the timetable for the passage of the budget is no longer realistic because the appropriation committees of both chambers of the National Assembly, we need additional time to be able to do a thorough job for the 2016 Budget.

“The Joint Committees on Appropriation wouldn’t like the budget to be thrown back to it based on some ambiguities.

“We want to remove all ambiguities.

“We want to remove all paddings.

“We want to produce a budget that is in line with the constitutional requirement.

“Again in terms of capital expenditure, there are complaints coming from different quarters arising from the imbalance from the capital allocation and of course disagreement among the Ministers and the civil servants in the various ministries that we have witnessed during the period of budget defence.

“These all together form enough basis for us to sit down and ensure that a thorough job is done before the budget is passed.”