2017 Budget: Dogara gives committees Thursday deadline to submit reports

The Speaker House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday gave Friday deadline to committees yet to submit report of 2017 budget to the Committee on Appropriation to do so.

Dogara gave the deadline at plenary and said that there was urgent need for the House to conclude work on the 2017 Appropriation Bill.

He said that any committee that failed to meet the deadline will face the consequences.

According to him, the affected Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen of committees should endeavour to submit their reports latest March 30 to enable the Appropriation Committee hasten the process of passing the 2017 Appropriation Bill.

Spokesman of the House, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas, had on March 16, told newsmen that March 30 deadline set by the National Assembly for the passage of Bill was not sacrosanct.

Namdas had explained that the inability of the lawmakers to meet the deadline was due to the new software being used in the process.

According to him, the new software is slowing down the work of the Appropriation Committee.

“The new budget software is different from what we used to have before and it is slowing down the process of the Appropriation Committee,’’ Namdas added.