NASS to transmit budget document to Presidency this week

The N7.4 trillion budget bill of 2017 pass by the two chambers of the National Assembly last Thursday may reach the Presidency this week, it was learnt on Sunday evening.

It was confirmed that despite the decision of the National Assembly to sit twice on Thursday to ratify the votes and proceedings of the budget passage to pave the way for its immediate transmission to the Presidency, the document is yet to leave the National Assembly because of the laid down procedures for the transmission of such documents.

A source in the National Assembly said that once the budget is passed, it would still go through legal procedures to ensure all the details were thoroughly checked before the transmission to the President under the seal of the Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA), who is empowered by the Acts Authentications Act to append his signatures to all laws of the land alongside the President.

Sources in the National Assembly, however, confirmed that the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) Mohammed Sanni Omolori had kick-started the constitutional processes that would end in the transmission of the budget.

“Once the bill is passed, the Clerk of the National Assembly will get copies from the Clerk of each House of the National Assembly,” The source explained.

“The copies will be endorsed by the Presiding Officers of each chamber. The CNA will then send the copies to the Legal Department which will complete the legal process on the bill before he (the CNA) signs the final copy and transmits same for assent by the President.”

It was gathered that the bill has already been referred to the Legal Department of the National Assembly, which will likely complete its work this week, a source said.

Sources in the Presidency also confirmed that the budget is yet to be received at the Presidential villa, adding that once it is ready, signing it will not be done in secret.

The source said: “The budget is yet to get to us, but we have assurances that it’s on the way and as soon as we get it, we will be on the mark.

“We don’t have any problem at all, we have assurances that they are working on it and ass soon as we get it we will work with urgency on it. “I am sure their legal department is working on a clean copy,” a source in the Presidency said.