The collation of 2016 budget reports by the Senate Committee on Appropriation began on Tuesday.
Various sub-committees of the appropriation panel started to submit the outputs of budget defence in their respective committees.
This resulted as President Muhammadu Buhari wrote Senate President, Bukola Saraki, urging the parliament to extend the duration for the implementation of the 2015 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) budget from December to March 31, 2016.
In his letter to Saraki, Buhari recalled that the 2015 FCT Appropriation Act was assented to by former President Goodluck Jonathan on May 28, 2015, noting that the late assent of Jonathan to the bill only provided the FCT administration with the opportunity of seven months of implementation.
He said the period was not enough to fully implement both the capital and essential projects in the Act.
“To meet its obligations and as permissible by the constitution, the FCT 2015 appropriation needs to be extended to March 31, 2016 as that would enable the FCT to make payments for various critical and essential ongoing projects towards achieving a better performance in the implementation of projects for the 2015 statutory appropriation.”
“I have taken a liberty of attaching a draft FCT Appropriation Amendment Bill 2015 for your consideration while looking forward to your kind approval of my request,” the letter read in part.”
Meanwhile, during Tuesday’s plenary, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, who had last week requested for the suspension of plenary to enable the sub-committees complete the budget defence, reported that the defence had been concluded while submission of the reports would begin after plenary.
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