Giving his remark during the plenary after the passage of the 2016 Appropriation Bill by the Senate in Abuja, the Senate President also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure an effective implementation of the budget, while also calling on the President to ensure an early presentation of the next year’s appropriation bill to the National Assembly.
He also pledged that the Senate would immediately commence the amendment of the Public Procurement Bill currently before the National Assembly as a way of aiding the effective implementation of the budget.
According to a statement by the Special Assistant to the Senate President on Print Media, Chuks Okocha, the Senate President said, “The budget reflects efficient and equitable allocation of resources to reduce the challenges that we are all aware of. This budget is a product of bipartisan engagement, commitment and patriotism.
“It gives me great joy to commend and appreciate all the efforts that all of you, my colleagues, have put in. It is the duty of the Executive arm to ensure full implementation of this budget as part of the campaign to bring succuor to our people. While implementing it, we charge the Executive to also consider the need to support locally produced goods in order to help our economy.
“We have all seen the earlier hiccups in the beginning of the budget and we hope that by the time we are preparing the 2017 budget, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies and the Budget Office would improve their level of interaction. We also hope that government itself would bring the budget much earlier to give ample time for the legislature to do its job. It is very important that we do this.
“I will also thank the Appropriation Committee and, of course, we have all noted the areas of omission and I hope the Executive will be able to address the different areas that we talked about.
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