Software glitches may delay passage of 2017 budget – Reps

Software glitches may delay passage of 2017 budget – Reps

Friday, March 17, 2017 7:57 am


House of Reps in session

Contrary to expectations of Nigerians, the 2017 Appropriation Bill may not be passed into law by before the end of the first quarter of the year by the National Assembly.

The National Assembly has set March 30 deadline set for the passage of  the money bill.

But the House of Representatives now says the date is not sacrosanct as the new software used to process the 2017 budget was slowing down the work of the Appropriation committee.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas, made this known on Thursday in Abuja.

“I want to say that the March 30 deadline, just for the purpose of records, may not be actually sacrosanct because of the new development that has risen.

“We have new budget software and it is different from what we used to have before.

“It is slowing the process of the appropriation committee down a bit.’’

According to him, there was also the need for standing committees that had yet to submit their reports to the Appropriation Committee to do so in order to hasten the process.

“The speaker, Yakubu Dogara just urged the various committees to submit their reports to the Appropriation committee by Friday because it has been realised that most of the committees have not submitted their reports.

“These are some of the issues slowing the process. But I think from the discussion with some of Chairmen of committees, I am optimistic they will submit their reports by tomorrow (Friday),’’ Namdas added.


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