At least, 22 out of 69 standing committees of the Senate, failed to beat the November 18 deadline in submitting the 2021 budget reports of the ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs they oversight to the Committee on Appropriations.
Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, who dropped the hint on Tuesday, while addressing the Senate in plenary, after the apex legislative chamber resumed sitting from its five-week working recess, however, noted that some of the committees had issues which were not their own making during the budget defence.
Lawan, therefore, gave the remaining 47 committees till Friday this week to complete and submit their report to the Committee on Appropriations, which would present the collated reports to Senate in plenary next week.
The Senate President, however, commended his colleagues for working tirelessly within the period, to ensure that the 2021 budget was considered and passed, in keeping with the new budget cycle of January to December.
It would be recalled that the Senate and National Assembly in general had on October 20 suspended plenary to enable all the standing committees hold the 2021 budget defence sessions with the MDAs.
The upper legislative chamber had through its chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Senator Barau Jibrin, disclosed that the 2021 Appropriation Bill would be passed in December.
Jibrin noted that there would be a joint public hearing on the bill, to be conducted by both the Senate and the House of Representatives on November 9 and 10.
He further explained that various committees of the Senate were expected to harmonize their reports from November 11 -18, 2020, and submit to the Appropriations Committee for onward harmonization with the House of Representatives.
The lawmaker said that, after harmonization, the Committee on Appropriations would then compile all the reports collated from the committees from November 19 to December 2, to be considered for passage in second week of next month.
