Senate to receive harmonized 2021 budget on December 3

The Senate Committee on Appropriation will present the harmonized version of the 2021 budget on December 3, at the plenary session.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Jubril Barau stated this after some chairmen of Senate standing committees submitted their reports for consideration.

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He said, “We have our timetable, we want to submit by 3rd of December, 2020. We are going to submit harmonized version of 2021 budget by the grace of God.”

When asked how the Committee will address the issue of omission of some agencies in the budget, he said there was no cause for alarm, assuring that the Appropriation Committee will address the issue.

He said, “The budget proposal is a very wide process talking about estimate of expenditures that are going to be overtaken by Federal government.

“So, you have several expenditures, so there is room for omission that is why we are here. We tell our own committees to go and scrutinize the budget of Ministries and report back to us.

“Whatever you see in the budget whether is an omission, our work is to get the report and engage our own expert here. We have accountants, we have economists. If there is an omission, we will fill those gaps. So there is cause for alarm.”