The Senate has accepted and adopted content of the executive communication from President Muhammadu Buhari over the amendment of 2016 budget proposal.
President Buhari sent a letter to the Senate President notifying federal lawmakers of some corrected versions in the 2016 budget.
In the letter read on the floor by Senate President Bukola Saraki, President Buhari stated that although there are some alterations in the budget, the figures remain the same.
“It will be recalled that on Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, I presented my 2016 budget proposals to the joint sitting of the national assembly. I submitted a draft bill accompanied by a schedule of details.
“At the time of submission, we indicated that because the details had just been produced, we would have had to check to ensure that there were no errors in the detailed breakdown contained in the schedule.
“That has since been completed and I understand that the corrections have been submitted.
“The National Assembly would therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week. It appears that this has led to some confusion.
“In this regard, please find attached the corrected version. This is the version the National Assembly should work with as my 2016 budget estimates. The draft bill remains the same and there are no changes in any of the figures.”
The Senate consequently directed the Senate Leader, Mr Ali Ndume, to distribute the budget with the alterations.
Debate on the budget is to begin on Wednesday, January 20, 2015.