The national assembly committee
on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to decide on if
it should approve the entire INEC budget or some of it as recommended by
President Muhammadu Buhari.
Udoma Udo Udoma, minister of
budget and national planning, appeared before the committee on Friday to
clarify the issues being raised on the budget.
In his remarks, the minister said
the entire INEC budget is N189 billion but the president requested for the
approval of N143 billion because the executive did not want an increase in the
overall size of the 2018 budget.
The remaining N45 billion is
expected to be a part of the 2019 budget.
During the session, members of
the committee suggested that the entire N189 billion requested by INEC should
be approved at once to be on the safe side.
The committee members said the
suggestion was made because there is no guaranty that the 2019 budget will be
passed earlier than February 2019; so as not to affect election activities.
Udoma did not object to the
standpoint of the lawmakers on the condition that the amount is taken from the
N578 billion insertion made by the national assembly into the 2018 budget.
This, he said, would ensure that
the 2018 budget does not exceed the already approved N9.12 trillion.
Addressing journalists after the
meeting, Suleiman Nazif, chairman, senate committee on electoral matters, said
there will be further deliberations on the budget before it is sent to the
appropriation committee of both chambers.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com