The controversy over whether or not the hard copy of the 2016 budget proposal is missing has not been cleared.
Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday said the upper chamber has empanelled a high powered team to resolve the matter.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) came under Senate’s Standing Order 42 to insist the document was missing.
Order 42 deals with matters of urgent national importance which the Senate is bound to consider if the Senate president allows it.
Abaribe told the Senate that the grievous issue of the “missing and disappearance of the 2016 budget proposal” was widely reported in the media yesterday.
He added that most of them had been inundated with questions by their constituents about the whereabouts of the budget proposal.
Abaribe said their constituents who genuinely believed and saw the budget as the life of the country wanted to know how and why the budget got missing.
He said the Senate should not sweep the matter under the carpet in the interest of their constituents and the country.
The senator recalled that the matter of the missing document also came up during their closed session on Tuesday without satisfactory explanation on the whereabouts of the document.
Abaribe, who prayed the Senate to debate the matter to tell Nigerians the truth about the disappearance of the fiscal document said it was also not in the interest of the Senate not to look into the matter.
He insisted that “the matter is definite and urgent” and should be considered.
Abaribe said: “The matter that I refer to is what is in every newspaper today, everywhere in all the talk shows on the radio of a missing budget and, therefore, Mr President, I want to bring to your attention and the attention of my colleagues that yesterday in our closed session, this matter also came up.
“Some of us are worried, have been inundated by messages from our constituents who are worried, are asking us, where is our budget.
“That is why Mr President, I think it is definite and it is urgent that we look into this matter.”
Saraki agreed and said a team of senators had been constituted to look into the matter.
The Senate president added that senators should be patient and await the findings of the search team after which the Senate would go into a closed session to discuss the matter.
He also confirmed that the issue came up during the Senate closed session on Tuesday.
Saraki said although Abaribe did not discuss the subject of his Point of Order with him as required by the Senate Rules, he would allow an exception in order to look into the issue.
Saraki said: “Because of the importance of this (disappearance of the budget), I will allow an exception.
“You know we are part of the decision at the closed session yesterday and as part of that decision we are still waiting for those we have referred to carry out the assignment to come back to us.
“I think they will come back to us by today and we will go into a closed session and finish up the report and we will be able to debate it properly.”
There was an attempt to cover up the issue when Senate president announced that the Senate would commence debate of the general principles of the 2016 budget proposal on Tuesday, January 19 through 21.
Saraki also said copies of the budget proposal would be made available to lawmakers today to enable them go through before the debate.
He asked lawmakers who intended to make contributions to indicate interest before the debate would commence.
There was no mention of the reported disappearance of the budget proposal until Abaribe blew the lid open to confirm what some senators dismissed as speculation on Tuesday.
Some senators spoken to yesterday wondered “whether anybody can circulate or distribute what you don’t have.”
A source noted: “As at today, nobody has given or told us in clear terms the sectoral allocations contained in the budget proposal.”
The senator said “it was wrong for the Senate to behave as if all is well when it is obvious that something is amiss.”
He noted that “if the budget was withdrawn, it could have been appropriate and reasonable for those involved to say so.”
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi has said the 2016 budget proposal was not missing.
He said no statement made by any senator during plenary yesterday could be interpreted to mean an admission that the 2016 budget was missing.
Abdullahi made the clarification in a statement made available to reporters in Abuja.
He insisted that no budget was missing and that the Senate will today distribute copies of the budget to senators to arm them to properly contribute to the debate which will take place between next Tuesday and Thursday.
He noted that senators have indicated the date they would make their contributions on the budget.
Abdullahi said during yesterday’s plenary Senator Abaribe sought clarification on the story in the media surrounding the information that the 2016 budget was missing.
He said the Senate president replied that the issue he (Abaribe) mentioned and others emanating from the executive sessions were being looked into by an ad hoc committee and that senators should wait for the committee to submit its report.
He said: “We have reeled out our timetable for working on the budget. So, how can the same budget be missing?
“The Senate president never said or admitted that the budget is missing and there was nothing that he said while presiding over plenary that could be logically interpreted to mean an admission that the budget is missing.
“The media should please avoid unnecessary sensationalism. We assure Nigerians that our timetable of completing work on the budget by February ending remains sacrosanct and we will work assiduously to achieve it.”