Emerging reports reveal that some conflicting details in the second 2016 national budget proposal presented before the national assembly in comparison with the initial one led to its outright rejection.
President Muhammadu Buhari
An alleged discovery of strange projects in the second version of the budget 2016 document brought by the presidency to the National Assembly was responsible for its rejection, the Senate declared yesterday, according to the Guardian News.
The Senate Majority Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, who briefed journalists at the National Assembly, disclosed that the second budget document failed a series of integrity tests carried out on it by the Senate.
He confirmed that the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, would today unveil the contents of a letter sent to the upper legislative chamber by President Muhammadu Buhari. But Ndume refused to disclose the letter’s content.
The Senate last Thursday rejected the replacement of the original version submitted to it by Buhari.
Saraki, who announced the decision of the Senate to reject the second version of the budget, had said: “We have received the report of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on investigations surrounding 2016 Appropriation Bill. Our finding is that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate) Senator Ita Enang, printed copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill and brought to the Senate.
“We have discovered that what he brought is different from the version presented by Mr. President. We have resolved to consider only the version presented by Mr. President as soon as we receive a soft copy of the original document from the Executive,” he added.
But providing further details on how the second budget document contradicted the original one, Ndume said that the few copies of the budget proposal document earlier submitted to the Senate were thoroughly compared with the copies that were later brought by the presidency and it was discovered that there were differences