Budget Office tackles Lawmakers over 2019 budget discrepancies

The Budget Office of the Federation has debunked claims by House of Representatives members that their inability to consider the 2019 budget s submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari was because it contained some discrepancies.

Recall that the House of Representatives had during the second reading of the 2019 Appropriation Bill on Wednesday, said it detected some miscalculations in the budget and consequently directed ministries of finance and budget to reconcile the figures on or before Thursday.

A statement signed by the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, said the office had met with the Secretariat of the House Appropriations Committee to review the budget.

He maintained that the 2019 budget was prepared and presented using format of previous years, hence, the impossibility of errors.

The statement read in part, “Our attention has been drawn to the allegation by a member of the House of Representatives during its debate on the 2019 Budget Proposals yesterday concerning errors and/or discrepancies in the 2019 Appropriations Bill.

“Earlier today, officials of the Budget Office of the Federation met with the Secretariat of the House Appropriations Committee to review the honourable member’s observations.

“The outcome of the review is that there are no errors/discrepancies as alleged by the honourable member.

“It is instructive to note that the presentation format of both the Appropriations Bill and Budget Details for 2019 are consistent with prior years.

“Although we have yet to receive any formal communication from the National Assembly on these observations, we have written a letter to the House Appropriations Committee Chairman, and are issuing this statement in view of wide coverage the observations have received in the media.”