BUDGET FACES HURDLE AS MDAS FAIL TO PROVIDE DETAILS

The passage of the 2017 Appropriation Bill by the National Assembly has suffered a setback, It was reliably gathered on Tuesday that the March 8 date set for the standing committees of both chambers of the National Assembly to submit their reports on the 2017 budget was no longer feasible. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives had suspended plenary for three weeks to conduct budget defence sessions for the government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies. It was learnt that though the National Assembly resumed plenary on Tuesday, most of the standing committees had not been able to reconcile their figures with the MDAs under their oversight. President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, after a short plenary, met with other leaders of the chamber and chairmen of the committees. At the meeting, it was gathered that majority of the chairmen complained that the estimates presented by the executive lacked details. A dependable source, who was at the meeting, said apart from missing details, several chief executives of the MDAs failed to appear before the committees for budget defence