Attempt by the House of Representatives joint committee on finance to consider the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Financial Strategy Paper (FSP) yesterday ended in futility.
This was because the key MDAs were absent causing the lawmakers to adjourn the meeting.
The Committees on Finance, Customs, Loans, Aids and Debt Management, National Budget and Research Office and Appropriations had converged for the session which had to be postponed because the relevant heads of the MDAs were absent.
Chairman of the joint committee, Hon. Babangida Ibrahim who is also the Chairman House Committee on Finance expressed displeasure atbthevturn of events.
He said: “You can see that the House has sent a notice of invitation to all the stakeholders and MDAs involved in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper so that we can discuss it against the backdrop of the preparation of the 2019 budget.
“We are here today but unfortunately, we discovered that almost of all the heads of the agencies that are key in discussing the MTEF are not here.
“The minister of national planning is not here, the minister of finance is not here, Accountant-General of the Federation is not here, Comptroller of Customs is not here, chairman of FIRS is not here, GMD of NNPC is not here, director of DPR is not here, CBN is not here.
“In fact, almost all of them. The only person that is available is the DG, Debt Management. So you can see that we cannot proceed to discuss the MTEF in the absence of these key players.
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“That is why we have to adjourn the meeting. We are going to give them a new date next week. We hope they will attend to our invitation.”
While speaking on the implication of their absence, the lawmaker said:
“The implication is that it will delay the preparation of the 2019 budget. That is the implication.
However, the Chairman of the Committee on Aids, Loans & Debt Management, Hon. Ajayi Adeyinka aligned with the .chairman on Finance in his submission.
He said: “The position of the chairman of the joint committee on the consideration of the MTEF is that all the committees who are sub-committee of the appropriation are engaging in budget performance appraisal waiting for the MTEF to be passed before budget defense.
“He (Chair Finance) said what is happening in the committees now is budget performance. So, nobody is doing budget defense.
“We have adjourned until the agencies are present. That is the current position of the committee.
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