No Discrepancies in 2019 Budget Proposals — Akabueze

• No Discrepancies in 2019 Budget Proposals — Akabueze

The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, on Thursday, said that there are no discrepancies in the 2019 budget proposal which is currently before the National Assembly.

He said in a statement personally signed by him that officials of the Budget Office of the Federation had met with the Secretariat of the House Appropriations Committee to review the claims by members of the House of Representatives that the budget had discrepancies.

The House of Representatives had during the second reading of the 2019 Appropriation Bill on Wednesday, detected some miscalculations in the budget.

The House, therefore, directed ministries of finance and budget to reconcile the figures latest by Thursday.

But reacting to the development, the DG budget said that no official communication had been received from the lawmakers.

The statement read in part, “Our attention has been drawn to the allegation by a member of the House of Representatives during its debate on the 2019 Budget Proposals yesterday concerning errors and/or discrepancies in the 2019 Appropriations Bill.

“Earlier today, officials of the Budget Office of the Federation met with the Secretariat of the House Appropriations Committee to review the honourable member’s observations.

“The outcome of the review is that there are no errors/discrepancies as alleged by the honourable member.

“It is instructive to note that the presentation format of both the Appropriations Bill and Budget Details for 2019 are consistent with prior years.

“Although we have yet to receive any formal communication from the National Assembly on these observations, we have written a letter to the House Appropriations Committee Chairman, and are issuing this statement in view of the wide coverage the observations have received in the media.”