Senate adopts 2016 revised budget

NIGERIA Senate on Tuesday adopted the revised version of the 2016 budget estimates.

The adoption of the corrected version of the budget followed a letter by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on the revised budget proposals.

Saraki read the Presidential letter in plenary on Tuesday.

The letter personally signed by Buhari was dated January 15, 2016 and entitled: “2016 budget proposals.”

President Buhari asked the Senate to work with the corrected version of the budget estimates

Some Senators, however, spotted a fundamental error on the date of presentation of the Appropriation Bill quoted in the Presidential memo.

The Senators said the memo stated that the budget was presented to a joint sitting of the National Assembly on Tuesday, December 22, 2016 instead of Tuesday, December 22, 2015.

The memo reads in part, “It would be recalled that on Tuesday 22nd December, “2016” (2015) I presented my 2016 budget proposals to the joint sitting of the National Assembly.

“I submitted a draft bill accompanied by 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 will therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week.

“It appears that this had led to some confusion. In this regard, please find attached a 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.”

Details of the corrections made on the fiscal document were not disclosed.

After reading the letter, Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, moved for the adoption of the letter so that the communication would formally become a document of the Senate.

Ndume also moved that with the adoption of the communication, the Senate should consider the budget as amended.

The two motions were endorsed by the Senate.

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