Budget 2016 Delay: Presidency Denies Breaching Law On MTEF

OVERWHELMED by criticisms over the delay in submitting the 2016 Budget proposal to the National Assembly, the Presidency yesterday said that its delay in forwarding the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) had not breached the law.

The MTEF, which is the precursor to the annual budget, is supposed ‎to be presented to the National Assembly and approved four months before the commencement of the next financial year.

Briefing journalists at the National Assembly yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Solomon Ita-Enang, said the President had not breached the Act but quickly added that the President would soon submit the MTEF and the 2016 budget proposal to the National Assembly.

But Part II (Section 11 (1b) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 states: “The Federal Government shall not later than four months before the commencement of the next financial year, cause to be prepared a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework for the next three financial years”.

Ita-Enang in defending the Presidency over the delay said: “There is no violation at all. It’s within what is allowed by law. Read the Act. Read the Act again. It says ‘between’ ‘and’. So, read the Act again. We are not in violation at all. The Presidency is still in order.”