The Speaker of Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman, says budget padding is legal.
Suleiman, who said this yesterday while presenting the approved 2020 Appropriation Bill to Governor Bala Mohammed for assent, said budget padding meant legislative adjustment to ensure fairness and equity for all within the budget.
“As legislators, when the governor presented the draft estimate of the budget, we studied the draft and in the process of working on the proposal, we made adjustments and moved some amounts to some other sectors, this is what some call as padding, anyway, padding is legal,” he said.
The speaker assured the governor that the house would continue to synergise with the executive in the implementation of the budget and other programmes so as to develop the state.
He thanked the governor for personally signing letters of commendation sent to all the 31 lawmakers.
