Disrortions in the 2014 appropriation bill, which is currently before the executive, are responsible for the President’s delay in assenting to it, the Federal Government has said.
Briefing State House correspondents yesterday, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, explained that it would be inappropriate for government to overlook some serious misrepresentations in the fiscal document because of their possible negative impact on the economy.
The National Assembly had last month passed an appropriation bill of N4.695 trillion for the 2014 fiscal year and transmitted it to the President for assent. However, it was about N53 billion higher than the N4.642 trillion presented by the Executive last December.
According to Maku, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday briefed FEC on the level of progress being made in reconciling the discrepancies that have emerged in the budget’s passage by the lawmakers.
He expressed government’s disappointment that with almost half of the year gone, the budget was still to be passed, but “there are distortions and areas that are very serious and we think there is need to look into them because of the negative impact those distortions may have on the implementation of the budget.”
He confirmed that discussions were ongoing between the Ministry of Finance and the National Assembly on the issue, adding: “Shortly, we believe we are going to reconcile those areas and then the final budget will be announced to the nation by the President.”
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