The National Assembly’s continued conflict with the executive branch of government has hampered the development of the 2023 budget.
The conflict was made worse by the N819.5 billion Supplementary Budget Bill, which was presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, failing to address earlier objections made by the members over projects in their constituencies.
The destiny of the 2023 budget was made worse by the executive’s failure to provide for the completion of numerous Constituency projects, according to many lawmakers who were outraged by the “selective execution” of prior financial arrangements for important infrastructure projects.
Many of the senators, who are also members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, accuse the Ministry of Works of refusing to include their constituents’ projects in the N819.5 billion additional budget Buhari submitted on Wednesday.
Outrage from resentful lawmakers was evident during an emergency meeting of the Senate Committee on Appropriations to discuss methods to resolve concerns of members.
Sen. Jibrin Barau, the committee chairman, was compelled to adjourn the meeting, and MPs insisted that there must be a private session where candid discussion of the concerns could take place.
He suggested allowing all of the Works and Housing subcommittees to work on the budget measure legislatively and submit a report to the Appropriations Committee today.
The fate of the 2023 budget measure currently depends on how well the Appropriations Committee can resolve the complaints of the members.
Meanwhile, the Senate has attributed the 2023 Appropriations bill’s inability to pass, as originally planned, on several mistakes made by the executive branch.
The absence of the budget report from yesterday’s legislative proceedings’ Order Paper provided an indication of this.
A few while after the about 15-minute plenary, the MPs entered a private meeting.
Following the meeting behind closed doors, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, stated that the Appropriations Committee’s inability to finish its work on the budget report prevented the 2023 Appropriations Bill from being passed on time.
He criticized the executive branch of government for delivering the flawed budget proposal so late.
He claims that in order to propose the report for passing on Wednesday, December 28, 2022, the two chambers must harmonize the document.
Lawan further guaranteed that the budget’s implementation will still start on January 1, 2023.
He stated: “We were not able to receive the report of the committee because the appropriation bill came to the National Assembly with some problems and when our committees on appropriation in the Senate and the House started to reconcile the figures of what we have done and what was presented, the problems became very obvious they were not easy to deal with.”
“Therefore our committees had to start the process of cleaning the bill first. That problem also engaged the executive arm because the problem came from there.
“It was concluded only yesterday and our committee secretariat are not able to finish processing the budget for us to take today (Thursday), tomorrow (Friday), Saturday or Sunday. Monday and Tuesday are public holidays.”
“Consequently, we can only receive the report and consider it on Wednesday, December 28. That is the earliest.”
