The Federal Government has denied reports that Ministries, Departments and Agencies are delaying the passage of the 2018 budget, saying the National Assembly should be blamed. The federal lawmakers had reportedly said the passage of the bill was being delayed due to the inability of the MDAs and Ministries to defend their allocations. However, in a statement on Sunday, the Director-General of Budget Office of the Federation Ben Akabueze, noted that the MDAs and Ministries had given the legislature all information needed since November 7 last year.
"The attention of the Budget Office of the Federation has been drawn to media reports suggesting that the FGN 2018 Budget was submitted to the National Assembly without details for some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs),” the statement read. "We have also received enquiries along same lines from concerned members of the public. It has, therefore, become necessary to clarify the facts regarding this matter.“Mr. President submitted the budget with all the usual details required by NASS to process the budget.
"We would like to emphasize, for the avoidance of doubt, that on November 7, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari, as constitutionally stipulated, laid before the National Assembly (NASS) the Executive budget proposals for 2018 with all the usual details required by the National Assembly to process the budget. This included the details of the budgets of all federal MDAs based on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) budget templates.”
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