All is set for the defense and passage of the 2021 Appropriation Bill recently presented to the National Assembly for passage,
It appears it is not going to be business as usual for MDAs as Senate on Thursday called on all heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to defend their budgets within the specific timeframe or stand the risk of forfeiting their 2021 budgets.
The Senate also announced that heads of MDAs would not be allowed to defend their budgets in proxy as practised in the past.
The President of the Senate and chairman of the National Assembly, Ahmed Lawan, made the announcement after the Thursday budget debate in plenary.
The Senate President had after the conclusion of Thursday’s plenary emphasized how critical it has become to expedite the passage of the 2021 budget to ensure maximum budget performance in the 2021 fiscal year.
Senator Lawan appealed to his colleagues at the Red Chamber to work in the spirit of patriotism to ensure the passage of the budget befor the end of the year, appealing to heads of MDAs to play their parts by honouring invitations to defend their budgets.
He said: “All Minsters and heads of agencies must defend their budgets in person. I mean in person. If fact, President Muhammadu Buhari last year gave the order that no minister or head of department or agency should travel overseas unless they have defended their budget.
“If a ministry failed to appear before the National Assembly to defend its budget by first week of December, then it should forget about it. The National Assembly will work on the budget in the best interest of the people and then move on”.
