The N6.08 trillion 2016 budget estimates yesterday suffered a major setback as the National Assembly announced that the February 25, 2016 deadline it gave for its passage was no longer feasible due to inherent errors, ambiguities and ‘padded’ figures smuggled into the fiscal document.
Indication that the budget would run into hitches emerged last week during its consideration at the committee level following stunning discoveries of series of errors and paddling of votes by some government agencies. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives had, penultimate Wednesday, fixed Febuary 25 for the passage of the budget after defence sessions with the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) at the committee level. But the two chambers of the National Assembly announced yesterday that they had postponed passage of the budget indefinitely due gross errors already identified in the entire budget estimates at both chambers. The errors identified in the budget had pitched ministers against top civil servants of their ministries at defence session. Announcing the postponement, chairmen of Appropriation Committees at both chambers, i.e., Senator Danjuma Goje and Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin, told journalists at a press conference that the budget was packed full with errors and needed to be thoroughly corrected before passage.
 

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