19th March, 2019
The Senate on Tuesday concluded debate on the principles of the 2019 Appropriation Bill and passed the Second Reading of the Bill.
With this, the Appropriation Bill has now been sent the relevant Appropriation Sub-committees of the Senate for the budget defence and presentation by Ministers and other Heads of ministries, department and agencies of the Federal Government.
Speaking at the end of the debate, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, thanked his colleagues for participating in the debate, while also stating that there was a need for the nation to continue to plug the leakages from the independent revenue sources.
The Senate President said: “The most important issue now is for us to see how we can complete the process.
“I want to make a strong appeal to all members of the Subcommittees on Appropriation to ensure that you all immediately start receiving presentations. At the same time, all Ministers, Heads of Agencies and Departments should ensure that they promptly attend the budget presentations when they are called in — so that there will be no delays coming from them.
“Ministers and Heads of MDAs should know that this is not the time to travel. This is the time to be around.
“Because of the short timeframe, Distinguished Senators should let us know of any MDA that you have called for presentations who have not attended for one reason or the other, so that this can be done by the 2nd of April when we hope to consider the final Report by the Appropriation Committee.”