By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Plans by the Federal Government to have the 2018 budget passed before the end of this year may have finally been dashed with the announcement by the House of Representatives to shift plenary to Tuesday, December 19, 2017, barely a week before Christmas.
The lower chamber of the National Assembly, at its plenary last week, explained that it was adjourning for two weeks to enable it look into the level of capital implementation of the 2017 budget signed into law in June.
During the two-week break, different committees of the House would visit the various government agencies and project sites to see for themselves how this year’s budget was fairing.
Speaker of the House, Mr Yakubu Dogara, stressed that the standing committees would not have adequate information to engage all MDAs on the budget, without passing the MTEF and embark on oversight of various projects implemented so far in the 2017 fiscal year.
But before the break, the House is expected to pass the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
The Senate will also seat tomorrow to look into the MTEF and FSP, having waited for the outcome of an OPEC meeting last Thursday in Vienna, Austria, where Nigeria was asked to cap its oil output at 1.8 million barrels per day, against the 2.3mbpd benchmark set in the 2018 budget.
“The MTEF has not been sorted out, even if we adjourn today, there is no legal basis for the committees to work. We will continue the debate on Tuesday before we round off on the budget.
“There is no doubt about that. The reason for this is not far-fetched. Whatever that was in the 2017 that was not carried out would be rolled in full into 2018.
“Our chairmen will do well to put side by side with 2018 budget and compare and ensure that MDAs did not just wave off provisions for 2018,” Mr Dogara said last week.
