The Federal Government says it is on course to with every thing being done to pass the 2021 budget currently before the National Assembly this year.
Director General of the Budget Office Mr Ben Akabueze, said this today in Abuja.
He also said that In line with meeting it’s deadline, budget defence by various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) before the lawmakers has been going on smoothly.
“It is going reasonably well, there is a commitment on both sides to get this done, and when issues arise for those issues to be sorted out promptly.
“So, we believe that we are on course to have the budget passed before the end of the year,”.
He also clarified the controversy sparked by his recent comments on workers’ salaries when he appeared before a committee of lawmakers.
DG Akabueze said his initial comment on the federal government being broke was taken out of context and reiterated that the F.G can pay federal civil servants their salaries.
He said, “have budget, the negotiations for the minimum wage were ongoing and being finalised. So, the 2020 personnel budget for MDAs was based on the old salary structure.”
He explained that the government had to make a provision in the service-wide vote to be able to deal with the situation which he said was anticipated would occur towards the end of the year.
Akabueze insisted that the government was in control of the situation where MDAs would be unable to pay salaries, stressing that 428 of them had been identified.
He gave an assurance that the affected MDAs would get the needed funds from the service-wide vote to pay the salaries of their personnel for November and December 2020.
President Muhammadu Buhari had presented the proposed 2021 Budget of N13 trillion to the National Assembly on October 8.
He is confident that the bill, termed Budget Of Economic Recovery and Resilience, will address key economic issues as the country tries to recover from the impact of the coronavirus and the oil price drop.
The President stated that his administration is determined to accelerate Nigeria’s economic recovery process amid the revenue generation challenges.
(C) Control TV 2020.
