The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, has disclosed that steps are being taken to ensure that the 2018 appropriation bill gets presented at the National Assembly in October.
Enang made this revelation when he appeared at the News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Abuja.
Enang stated that these actions have been taken following the directive of the National Assembly which fixed October as deadline for the submission of the bill last year.
He further disclosed that different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have made their budget inputs and submissions to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
He said: “The ministers are already appearing before the ministry and defending their submissions.
“It is intended that in the next few days they would have completed the exercise and have the total of the budget as well as get ready with the final draft. Everything is being done to ensure that we keep to the date.”
According to him, once the 2018 proposal has been presented in October, “the National Assembly will consider it between October and November and by December it would have been passed.
“The current budget will end in 12 months and having been signed on June 12, 2016, the budget is legally to run between June 12, 2017 and June 12, 2018. But the intention of the government is to make sure that the implementation date and assent will be for January 1, 2018 so that we will return the budget to the conventional January.
“It is what was discussed and agreed and we are working together; there is harmony and there is understanding and unison on this subject.
“There is no matter that will frustrate this because all things were taken into account at arriving at this decision.’’
The presidential aide noted that constraints were encountered during the execution of capital projects of the 2016 budget performance.