Senate FAILS To Pass Budget for 2023
Those who anticipated that the Senate would pass the 2023 Appropriations Bill into law yesterday were disappointed.
The Senate, which failed to pass the 2023 Appropriations bill as originally intended, blamed the Executive Arm of government for not only providing the budget proposal unusually late but also for introducing a document full of errors.
When the budget report was not included on the Order Paper for yesterday’s parliamentary activity, it was clear that the senators would not approve the 2023 Budget.
The Senate had gone into Executive Session immediately after the daily plenary commenced, and the closed session continued for 15 minutes until the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, made his revelation.
On October 7, 2022, during a joint session, President Muhammadu Buhari presented the National Assembly with the N20.51 trillion proposed budget for 2023.
complete budget proposals with errors
In the meanwhile, the Senate will postpone its customary Christmas break so that the senators may discuss what has been called President Buhari’s error-filled budget recommendations for 2023.
The Senate was scheduled to meet after the budget proposals were passed during the Christmas and New Year holidays, but that schedule has been altered by the decision to move the budget proposals’ passage forward.
After the meeting was held behind closed doors, Lawan said that the 2023 Appropriations Bill could not be enacted on time because the Appropriations Committee was unable to finish its work on the budget report.
Lawan accused the executive branch of the government of submitting the budget proposal very late and with mistakes, noting that the process of fixing the errors in the Appropriations bill was completed yesterday. Lawan continued by saying that the two chambers must harmonize the copy in order to present the report for passage by both chambers on December 28, 2022.
Prior to the budget’s adoption on Wednesday, Lawan revealed that the Senate and the House of Representatives were working together with the administration to fix any problems.
