Senate suspends plenary for one week again for budget processing

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The Senate on Tuesday suspended its plenary for one week to enable various committees concerned with processing of the 2019 budget complete their assignments.

The one week break was necessitated by the inability of the Appropriation Committee to submit its report as agreed upon by the Senate during its last sitting.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki had called on the Vice Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Senator Sunny Ogbuoji to give an expected date for submission of its report only for the Senate to be shocked by Ogbuoji’s revelation that less than 10 committees have submitted their report.

Ogbuoji pleaded with the Senate to apply its rule to sanction any Committee that failed to submit its report on Friday.

The Senate President agreed to the request and ruled that any Committee Report not received by the Appropriation Committee on Friday will go with the Executive submission.

He ruled that plenary will reconvene on Tuesday April 9 while the final report of the Appropriation Committee should be laid on Wednesday April 10 and the 2019 Appropriation Bill be passed on April 16.