SAN FRANCISCO, June 03, (THEWILL) – The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters – Senate, Senator Ita Enang says there is no plan by the presidency to reject the 2017 Appropriation Bill recently passed by the legislature.
This was contained in a statement issued by the legislative aide on Saturday in Abuja, wherein he stated that the presidency was working within the constitutional time-frame required to process details of the budget.
According to the statement, “there is no such plan by it to reject the 2017 budget passed by the National Assembly as alleged in some reports.
“The presidency can only assent to the budget or withhold assent as the case maybe.
“However, should there be areas needing input, the presidency would engage the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives.
“As such, any report suggesting a rejection of the 2017 Budget by the presidency is incorrect.”
Enang said the presidency was currently subjecting every detail of the budget to scrutiny using the available systems at its disposal.
He pointed out that this was with the view to ensuring that the figures appropriated to ministries, department, and agencies were consistent with the realities on the ground.
“When the budget was presented to both chambers of the National Assembly for consideration last year by President Muhammadu Buhari, both chambers subjected the document to legislative processes, using internal systems at their disposal.
“This, exactly, is what the presidency is actually doing at the moment to ensure that the budget, when assented to, sufficiently addresses the nation’s present realities,” he added.
