Members of the House of Representatives on Monday completed their 3-day debate on the proposed 2016 budget estimates and subsequently passed it into the second reading.
The House had last week Wednesday commenced debate on the budget, 24 hours after receipt of the “corrected” document by President Muhammadu Buhari.
By the passage into second reading, the proposed document of the budget will now be treated by the appropriation committee of the House before its onward transmission to the standing committees for detailed scrutiny.
Different committees will engaged relevant ministers, heads of departments, agencies and parastatal to defend their allocation in the budget, after which the House would receive back the estimates for the final passage.
During yesterday’s debate, where about 84 members contributed, grey areas in the budget as well as perceived lapses of the documents were pointed out by the lawmakers for the consideration of the committees.
Minority leader of the House, Leo Ogor (PDP, Delta), who opened the debate said the budget was incomplete in view of discrepancies contained despite the correction from the presidency.
Ogor, after commending the president for fulfilling what he called the constitutional responsibility of presenting the budget estimate before the House, however tagged the budget as an “incomplete document.”
He told the House that “The budget has the total figures of N6.077 trillion, but when you add all the sub headings, you will find out that the budget is actually N6.30 trillion. Where is that particular remaining money?”
Ogor also said the president has violated the provision of section 81 (1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which says budgets of independent agencies like CBN, NNPC and others must be attached to the annual budget proposal.
But House leader, Femi Gbajabiamila challenged the assertion in a Point of Order, saying that since the president has fulfilled the constitutional provision of presenting budget estimate, any other law is subservient to the 1999 constitution. Chairman of the appropriation committee, Abdulmumini Jibrin (APC, Kano) whose committee’s duty is to work and oversee all other standing committees on the budget defense assured of a speedy work and deliberations.