PMB May Receive 2016 Amended Budget Today

 

After days of rigorous work on the 2016 budget by the 10-man Harmonisation Committee set up by the National Assembly, President Muhammadu Buhari will today receive the amended copy of the amended money bill today, it was gathered yesterday.

The committee which is under the leadership of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Sulaimon Lasun, had immediately swung into action, following a truce meeting between President Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Lasun Committee was expected to round its assignment yesterday night ahead of the presentation of an amended copy of the budget to the President today.

Weekend’s findings at the Transcorp Hilton, venue of the committee’s meetings, revealed however that its deliberations were not without rancour.

A reliable source privy to the workings of the adhoc panel told our reporter that in one of the committee’s sittings, a spat ensued between the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin and his counterpart in-charge of the House Committee on Finance, Babangida Ibrahim, who are both members.

Fingers had been pointed at Jibrin in the House and Senator Danjuma Goje in the Senate, accusing them of distorting the budget, an allegation both have denied.