The Joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation has said that it had perfected arrangements to pass the 2024 appropriation bill before the end of the week.
The joint panel has already handed down a 48-hour deadline to all sub-committees to submit their reports on the 2024 budget.
This was preparatory to the eventual signing into law of the N27.5 trillion appropriation bill by President Bola Tinubu before the end of December.
Chairman of the appropriation committee, Senator Solomon Adeola, made this known at the sitting of the panel on Monday.
Adeola enjoined all the sub-committees to keep to the deadline to enable the National Assembly meet the January-December budget cycle.
“I am appealing to all my colleagues. Please, I am ready, and the deadline is Wednesday this week, to receive all reports, all standing committees of the senate,” Adeola said.
“By Wednesday, any agency or any committee that has not submitted their report before the committee, it is assumed that you are giving us the omnibus power to go ahead and treat your budget independently of that committee.
“So, we are appealing to all chairmen of various committees to, please, submit their reports on or before Wednesday this week.
“Today, we formally open the secretariat to all chairmen of committees and their secretariat to start the defence of their respective budgets of their MDAs before the Committee on Appropriations.
“I want to implore my colleagues, please, we are readily available to receive their reports.”
Adeola expressed optimism that the budget would be passed upon resumption of plenary by the National Assembly on December 20.
“But without this submission before the committee, there is little or nothing we can do and as you are all aware, the tradition of the National Assembly is to pass the budget into law by 31st of December of every year.
“This 10th Senate cannot be an exemption. We have to work round the clock. We understand the stress everybody is going through but that is why we are here.”
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From the sub-committee reports submitted yesterday, the lawmakers raised the issue of the 136 Nigerians trapped in Ethiopian prisons.
They also spoke about the N5 billion proposed in the budget to revamp the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State among other issues of national importance.
