President Bola Tinubu will present the 2024 budget to the National Assembly in the next two weeks.
The President will also submit the supplementary budget for 2023 to the National Assembly for consideration.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola, who made this known during the inaugural meeting of the committee on Wednesday, stated that the National Assembly would ensure that the 2024 budget is passed before December 31, 2024.
Adeola said, “I know we have it on good authority that the supplementary budget would be sent by the executive in the next couple of hours to the National Assembly.
“Also in about a week or two weeks later, the President will be presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly and as a result of this I find it very important to call for an inaugural meeting so that we can know one another.”
Talking about the delayed presentation of the budget by the President to the National Assembly, Adeola said the change in government was a significant factor that should be considered.
“I want you to take cognizance of the change of government on May 29.
“There is a teething problem because there is a change of government. The new administration has a new mantra that encapsulates its vision and there must be challenges,” he said.
Adeola, however, promised that irrespective of the lateness in the submission of the 2024 budget, the Senate would do a thorough job.
“Our job is to verify the budget to meet the expectations of the people. We will look into it thoroughly.
“We are expecting the MTEF next week and immediately we receive the document, the Committee on Finance will go into work and look into it.”
He added, “The Finance Minister and the Minister of Budget and Planning are working round the clock.
“I assure you that we won’t break the tradition, we will have the budget as and when due. We will keep to the tradition of the January-December budget cycle.”
Adeola dismissed the concept of budget padding.
He said, “A budget has to do with the nomination of projects to the budget document that will meet the yearnings and the needs of the people, I would not regard that as padding.
“It is still part of a government document, we will look into and it has an expectation. The budget has an estimate but implementation is another thing.
“So I don’t believe in budget padding, it never exists in my dairy.”
