Dogara wants early submission of 2020 budget to National Assembly

As President Muhammadu Buhari signs the 2019 budget into law, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has called on the Executive to ensure early submission of 2020 budget to the National Assembly.‎

This was just as the Speaker assured that the National Assembly will continue to work on areas that need improvement for better implementation of the country’s fiscal policy framework.

Dogara dropped the hint on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he joined other government officials to witness the signing of the 2019 budget by the President.

Speaking on issues raised by the president on adjustments made by the National Assembly on the Appropriation Bill, Dogara said both arms of government should be focused on ensuring that the budget meets the expectations of Nigerians.

“The issues Mr. President (Buhari) raised concerning certain reductions that were made in the 2019 budget and some sub-heads increments, and that such reductions made it difficult for some of those projects to be implemented.

“But he also said it is an ongoing process and we will have discussion with the leadership of the National Assembly to see what they will do in other to put that behind them and then execute whatever critical projects that suffered some form of hurt in the process of passing the project in the National Assembly,” the Speaker said.

According to him, the issue of budget was also mentioned by the President, who he quoted as saying he will align the appropriation time to be like that of the private sector which is from January to December.

He added that the budget, being a law, falls within the purview of the National Assembly, which decides how federally generated receipts should be expended.

He reiterated that the job of the National Assembly is not to agree with the Executive, as that is not the practice in any developed democracy.

“Whether in Britain or the US, there is always a strain in the issue of budget, because it deals with high stakes of who gets what, which part of Nigeria gets this and that, so it will continually be an issue,” he further remarked.