Surreptitious moves for theinclusion of fresh sub-heads/projectsin the 2023 Appropriation Billare responsible for the delay of its passage by the National Assembly(NASS),findings have revealed.

It was gatheredthattop officials of Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) andsome National Assembly members hadsince President Muhammadu Buharipresented thebudget proposalonOctober 7, 2022inundated the NASSAppropriationCommitteeswithnewsubheads/projects.

A source inFederal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planningtold our correspondent at the weekend that the officials and the federallawmakers claimed that funds forthe subheads/projectswere notcaptured in the2023financial appropriation.

The source, who absolved the Executiveof any blame in the passage of the bill,said the lawmakers predicatedtheir request s on the grounds that the “omitted’’ items were a part of their constituency projects.

He added that the MDAs’ top officials argued that their ‘omitted’ projects were to cover areas earlier left out in the proposed N20.51trillion budget.

The source, who did not want his name in print, also dismissed last Thursday’s claim by Senate President Ahmad Lawan that the budget was laden with errors.

His words:”The only plausible explanation known to the Ministry is the need for more time by the Appropriations Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly to reflect additional inputs to the budget by both the Executive and Legislative arms of government.

“Some of them claim that some items or projects are not captured in the budget for funding. Some National Assembly members, we have learnt, argued that such items or sub-heads are a part of their constituency projects.

“All these, we know, affect the work of the NASS committees on Appropriation and are, therefore, largely responsible for the delay in the passage of the bill.”

Effortsto pass the budget suffered a setback lastThursday,following what Senate President Lawan described as challenges encountered duringitsclause-by –clauseconsiderationby relevant Appropriation committees.

Lawan, who blamed the Executive for the failure to pass on the budget on schedule, said the proposal was not only submitted late but it came with errors.He, however,assuredthat the Appropriation bill wouldbe passed on Wednesdayin keeping with the January – December budget cycle.

Lawan said: “We are not able to pass the 2023 Appropriations Bill due to some challenges.

“We are not able to receive the report of the Appropriations Committee and the main reason for this is because the Appropriation Bill came to the National Assembly with some problems.

“When our Committees on Appropriation in the Senate and the House of Representatives started to reconcile the figures of what was presented, the problems became very obvious and they were not easy to deal with.

“Therefore, our committees had to start the process of cleaning the bill first. That process also engaged the executive arm because the problem came from there.

“It was concluded only yesterday (Wednesday) and our committee secretariat was not able to finish processing the budget for us to take today nor tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday because these are periods that are for festivities, the Christmas period. Monday and Tuesday are public holidays.

“Consequently we can only receive the report and consider it on Wednesday, the 28th, that’s the earliest.“All the appropriations since 2019 till date had been passed before the end of the year. I believe this will be one of the legacies of the 9th National Assembly.

“By the grace of God on the 28th of this month, the Senate and the House of Representatives will all come back to receive and consider the budget report from our committees.

“But Let me advise the Executive. The bills that have come to us, the Ways and Means, the Supplementary Appropriation, whoever is invited to come and explain, give information or any detail for the National Assembly to understand must do so, because its isnot our work alone.

“We want to do our work thoroughly, we want to understand whatever we are going to deal with and to base our decisions on information, and time is of essence.

“Just like we are going to sacrifice part of our festive period to be back here, nobody should tell us that they are in their places because it is Christmas. They should be available with every necessary information.” (The Nation)