Indications have emerged that the timetable set by the Senate for passage of the 2020 Budget may be suffering some setbacks as some of its committees have fixed their budget defense beyond October 28, 2019.

Following presentation of the 2020 Budget proposal of N10.33 trillion by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly on October 8, 2019, Senate subsequently adjourned for budget defense exercise.

While Senate was adjourning plenary on October 15, Senate President Ahmed Lawan had asked all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to appear before the committees to defend their Budget estimates on or before October 28.

Lawan further warned that any MDA that fails to appear before Senate resumption on October 29 would suffer zero budget provision in 2020 fiscal year because Senate wants to pass the budget in December.

“We have earmarked the month of October to be the sole window for all budget defence activities in this year, by all MDAs,” Ola Awoniyi, the special adviser on media to the President of the Senate, quoted Mr Lawan as saying on October 8, 2019.

“In this regard, our Committees will be expected to conclude their work on budget defence within October, this year.

“The subsequent necessary legislative work will be carried out in November and December, leading to the eventual passage before the end of this year,” Lawan said.

But early signs that the 2020 budget proposals may not be passed as quickly as planned manifested when committees such as Science and Technology fixed its budget defense hearing against the October 28 and October 29 deadline.

By Friday October 25, some committees like the Senate Committee on Special Duties had a budget defence session with the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) and the National Commission For refugees, Migrants and IDPs.

A senator who spoke to LEADERSHIP Sunday on condition of anonymity, said the Senate leadership was highly ambitious when it directed budget public hearing and defense session to be held and concluded within two weeks.

“Lawan said all that to please President Buhari and his January-December budget cycle drive without much recourse to National Assembly appropriation process and regards to time-frame.

“Ordinarily, all the committees are expected to submit their reports of budget defense session to Appropriation Committee that would collate and harmonise figures with the proposals submitted by Mr President.

“It is the end report of the Appropriation Committee that we will pass into third reading, ostensibly passing the 2020 Appropriation Bill which requires a certain length of time.

“The saving grace is that we are only carrying over capital budget of 2019 to 2020 fiscal year since the federal government is yet to make any releases for capital project for this year.

“Besides, over N3 trillion or barely half of the 2020 budget proposal is earmarked for debt servicing and just N2.14 trillion as capital budget proposal.

“There is virtually no arduous task for officials of the MDAs in this budget defence session since they merely appear to repeat what they told us last year,” the senator said.

Another senator who also don’t want his name mentioned said Sections 80–84 of the 1999 Constitution confer ‘appropriation powers’ as well as responsibilities over the national purse on the parliament.

“Except that we acquiesced our right of budget formulation and passage, by now we should have had the National Assembly Budget And Research Office (NABRO) in place.

“If we have the budget and research commission, there won’t be a need for director general of the Budget Office of the Federation.

“NABRO would easily provided the National Assembly with objective, timely and non-partisan analysis needed for economic and budget decisions.

“But we feebly allowed the bill set to establish this office to be thrown away by the Presidency which shouldn’t have been the case where a parliamentary system is highly entrenched,” the lawmaker said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, Senator Barau Jibrin, has confirmed that committees are enjoined to continue their budget defence sessions with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Senator Barau disclosed yesterday that some MDAs are yet to finish defending their budget proposals before the Senate Committees and that they could continue to do that throughout next week.

“We are very much on course, the exercise of budget defence with MDAs can actually continue and they will hold throughout next week,” Barau stated.

In the earlier schedule, the various committees of the Senate which were supposed to gather information from MDAs on the budget, ought to have turned in their reports to the Appropriation Committee to begin the real process of turning the budget 2020 bill into law.

The Senate suspended plenary session on October 15, 2019 for two weeks to allow the standing committees conclude work and submit their reports so that by October 29 plenary sessions could resume while the Appropriation Committee alone would begin its work.

But a committee clerk who pleaded not to be named, said budget defense session won’t end till November 15 if the situation in the upper chamber is anything to go by.

“This budget defense session won’t end earlier than November 15 because some MDAs are yet to appear before the joint committees with the reality on ground,” committee clerk confided in LEADERSHIP Sunday.

It would be recalled that the Senate on May 3, 2019 passed the National Assembly Budget And Research Office (NABRO) but subsequently failed to receive assent by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The move seeking to establish the National Assembly Budget office was first conceived in 2005 under the Senate Presidency of Senator Ken Nnamani, but failed to make it to the floor of the upper chamber.

The bill didn’t see the light of day in the 6th Senate under the leadership of Senator David Mark as it failed to receive the required support for its reintroduction.

The was reintroduced on the floor of the 7th Senate under Senate President David Mark, after being sponsored by the Senate Leader at the time, Victor Ndoma-Egba. But it never become law.

The bill which was however reintroduction last week Thursday on the floor of this Senate, scaled first reading on the floor during plenary. It was sponsored by Senator Rose Oko (PDP, Cross River North). The proposed National Assembly Budget Office Bill will report annually to the Senate and House of Representatives all items funded in the preceding financial year for which no appropriation was made by the National Assembly. It will also report on all items contained in the Appropriation Act in the preceding financial year which were not funded by the federal government.

The office is to be headed by a director general, who shall also report to a governing board made up of a chairman and six members and shall “provide independent and continuous review of the federal government budgets including monitoring of existing and proposed programmes.

“Provide independent unbiased analysis of the budget of the National Assembly and assist all the committees of the National Assembly in developing their annual budgets,” according to the Bill.

Essentially, the NABRO bill will provide assistance to all committees in both chambers of the National Assembly including, but not limited to, information with respect to budget and all bills relating to new budget heads; information with respect to estimated future revenue and changing revenue conditions. (LEADERSHIP)