Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Senate at plenary yesterday passed two bills seeking to extend the implementation of capital components of 2022 Appropriation bills to June 30.
Senate resolution followed the presentation of the two bills, sponsored by the Senate Leader, Gobir Abdullahi (APC-Sokoto).
The two bills sponsored are Bill for an Act to amend the 2022 Appropriation Act and. Bill for an Act to amend the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act.
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Abdullahi in his presentation said the bills seek to amend the 2022 appropriation act and 2022 supplementary appropriation act to extend the implementation year from March 31 to June 30.
He said the National Assembly had extended the implementation of the 2022 appropriation Act from Dec 31 2022 to March 31, 2023.
This, he said was to allow full implementation of the budget, given the approval of the supplementary budget approved in Dec 2022.
He said the extension had allowed Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) to use a large proportion of funds released to them.
He, however, said significant amounts of funds remained with MDAs and would require a further extension to be fully extended.
He said given the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, the request for further extension of the expiration clause in the appropriation act and the long title explanatory memorandum of the supplementary appropriation act was expedient.
This, he said, was to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects, given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2023 budget.
Abdullahi urged senators to support the bill to allow full utilization of the capital releases to help reflate the economy.
In his contribution, Senator Gabriel Suswam (PDP, Benue North-East), backed the request to extend the budget, he however added that it should be spelt out that the 2022 budget will run concurrently with the 2023 Appropriation Act
The senate later dissolved into the ‘Committee of Supply’ to consider the report before it eventually approved and passed the request to extend the life of the 2022 budget till June 30, 2023.
