Members of the Senate at the plenary today criticised the 2018 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.
At the resumption of Legislative proceedings, Senators complained that 2018 Budget is filled with inaccuracies, budget padding and inconsistencies.
The Senate is maintaining that it cannot complete work on the 2018 budget in January as requested by the Executive.
The Upper Chamber is also lampooning the Executive for the poor implementation of the 2017 budget which it says shows a lack of seriousness on the part of President Buhari’s economic team
The Senate had therefore suspended plenary for two weeks to allow committees organise budget defence sessions with MDA’s.
But lawmakers are raising complaints that the budget defence sessions held in the last two weeks show that MDA’s are woefully unprepared to defend their budgets and the level of implementation of the 2017 budget is embarrassing.
President Buhari had earlier in November presented the 2018 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly. The 2018 budget according to Buhari will consolidate on the achievements of the previous budget and that 2018 was expected to be a year of better outcomes.