* To engage finance, budget ministers Wednesday
* Deliberation on MTEF-FSP commences next week
Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The Senate has said that President Bola Tinubu will present the 2024 budget estimates to the National Assembly in November for consideration and passage before the end of the year.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola, explained this in an interview with journalists after the inaugural meeting of his panel Wednesday.
The senator, who is representing Ogun West Senatorial District, said the National Assembly is expecting the Federal Government to present the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy (MTEF-FSP) next week for proper scrutiny.
Adeola also hinted that his panel had invited the Minister of Finance, who is also the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Budget, Atiku Bagudu, for a meeting next Wednesday.
He assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would try as much as possible to make sure that the 2024 budget consists of 55 per cent capital expenditure.
Adeola said the 10th Senate would maintain the January to December budget cycle, which the 9th National Assembly started.
He said: “I want you to take cognisance of the change of government in May 29. There is 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. We will do a thorough job on the budget.
“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.
“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 at when due. We will keep to the tradition of January to December budget cycle.”
The senator said there was nothing like padding in budget processing.
He said: “It has to do with nomination of project to the budget document that will meet the yearnings and the needs of the people, I would not regard to that as padding.
“It is still part of government document we look into and it has an expectation. Budget is an estimate but implementation is another thing. So I don’t believe in budget padding, it never exists in my dairy.”
