The Deputy Leader of the Senate, Senator Bala Na’Allah, on Tuesday, said the Senate will resist in all totality and firmness, any attempts by whoever to inflate the 2017 budget.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that Na’Allah noted that the budget will be worked on in the exact format that it was received from the presidency.
Senator Na’Allah said this when the Rector and officials of the Nigerian Aviation College of Technology, appeared before the Senate Committee on Aviation to defend the agency’s 2017 budget.
Last year, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abdulmumunin Jibrin accused the leadership of the House of padding the budget.
Na’Allah said anything not captured in the original 2017 budget document submitted to the National Assembly should be resubmitted in the supplementary budget of the Federal Government.
According to him, “We will not add anything that was not added in the original budget. If you want to increase the budgetary allocation, you have to send a supplementary budget. If we do that, you will accuse us of budget padding. We will not allow it.
“We want to ensure that public money is spend judiciously. We want to be sure that whatever we are approving for anything is what will buy the same thing. We have looked at your budget. We will do everything possible to give you what you want.
“We will also take out some money which we think you do not need. Since you are refleeting, you must tell us what your intentions are and what you intend to do with the old ones. Next week Thursday, we are going to the aviation college to see the state of the runway to see what is happening there.”
TheNewsGuru.com recalls that Na’Allah was speaking against the backdrop of the controversies that trailed the 2016 budget where allegations and counter allegations about inflating the budget why both the executive and legislature marred the passage and implementation process.