We Haven’t Signed The 2023 Budget Because Of Its Obvious Problems- Senate

The Senate on Thursday said it had identified “obvious problems” with the 2023 appropriation bill and won’t be passing it till a later date.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, while speaking on the budget at plenary on Thursday, said the Senate and House of Representatives committees on appropriation had since begun cleaning up the document.

“We are not able to receive the report of the committee (appropriations).

“The main reason for this is that the appropriations bill came to the National Assembly with some problems and when our committees on appropriations of the Senate and the House started to reconcile the figures and what was presented, the problems became very obvious.

“Therefore, our committees had to start the process of cleaning up the bill first. That process, of course, also engaged the executive arm – because the bill came from there – and that was concluded yesterday.

“Our secretariat of our committees is not able to process the budget for us either today or tomorrow, not Saturday or Sunday.”

Lawan said the National Assembly would likely consider and pass the budget after the Christmas holidays.