BREAKING: Senate FINALLY Passes 2016 Budget, Reduces It By N17billion

The Senate, on Wednesday, passed the 2016 Appropriation Bill and reduced the budget size from the initial N6.077trn presented to the  federal parliament  by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 23, 2015, to N6.060trn, a difference of N17bn.

Senate President Bukola Saraki signing the 2016 budget today (Photo: fb.com/bukola.saraki)

The federal lawmakers approved the N1.587trn as the  capital expenditure portion of the budget and the recurrent expenditure of N2.646.3trn.

They also approved N351.37bn as Statutory transfers, N1.475.3trn for Debt Service, and N2.2trn for Fiscal deficit.

The federal parliamentarians also adopted the oil benchmark of $38; Crude production of 2.2000m barrel per day and the exchange rate of N197 to $1 for the implementation of the budget.

Explaining how the difference of N17bn was identified, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, admitted that the 2016 budget proposal contained a number of errors of omissions,  particularly in the area of personnel cost.

He said his committee therefore filled some of the gaps would could still raise serious concerns in the course of the year because there were many outstanding cases.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, explained after the formal passage of the appropriation bill that his colleagues had done his part and requested the president to do the needful by signing it to law for immediate implementation.

Senate Orders Contractor To Stop Work On Jonathan’s Otuoke Road Project

Irked by the level of work on the 16 kilometre  Otuoke Road project in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Projects, has ordered the contractor handling the project to stop work and vacate site immediately, Vanguard reports.

Goodluck Jonathan

The Senate Committee, which was on an inspection tour of various NDDC projects in Bayelsa State, expressed anger over the poor performance of the contractor handling the road project which connects former President Goodluck Jonathan’s country home, Otuoke, with Yenagoa, the state capital.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Peter Nwaobushi, who stated this in Yenagoa, said that the contractor, after collecting N600 million mobilization for the project, reduced the scope to six kilometres, without any agreement with NDDC, yet with no appreciable work on ground to match funds so far released by the commission.

The committee also expressed displeasure with the slow pace of work at the Akenfa Canal Bridge in Yenagoa, the state capital, however, admitting that the delay was caused by the non-release of funds to the contractors.

On the hostel project located at the Niger Delta University, NDU, Amassoma, the Committee lauded the contracting firms for their work pace despite the re-design of the project to include drainages to allow easy passage of rain water.