No discrepancies in 2019 budget, Budget Office clarifies

Mathew Dadiya

The Budget Office of the Federation has said that the 2019 budget proposals have no discrepancies, contrary to the allegation by a member of the House of Representatives. A member of the House of Representatives had during its debate on the 2019 Budget Proposals on Wednesday, alleged that the 2019 appropriation bill contained errors and discrepancies. But the Director General of the Budget Office Mr Ben Akabueze refuted this on Thursday saying that it was instructive to note that the presentation format of both the appropriations bill and budget details for 2019 were consistent with prior years. Earlier Thursday, 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 was that “there are no errors/discrepancies as alleged by the honourable member. “Although we are 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 the wide coverage the observations have received in the media.”