Saraki Announces Date for the Publishing of 2016 Budget

  

News has it that Bukola Saraki   Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said the National Assembly would1 make details of its annual budget available to members of the public next week according to the Punch.  Saraki said the development would be a departure from the tradition of having one line item budget by the federal parliament.  Saraki, according to
a statement, by his Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Muhammed Isa, on Sunday, stated this while hosting a team of editors from the London based, The Economist newspaper.  He said, “For the first time we promised Nigerians to give out our budget breakdown. The committee will make its report available by next week. We are resolved to break the tradition of one line item.”  He also promised to support the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s fight against corruption.  He said, “Under my watch the senate will never cover corruption except if the information didn’t come to us”.  Saraki said the senate was ever ready to partner with Buhari to ensure the success of the anti-corruption war.‎  The Senate, he added, had already demonstrated such commitment through its interventions on many alleged corrupt transactions such as its swift investigation and adoption of a report on the management of the Treasury Single Account that saved the nation about N7bn.  He also said that the upper chamber exposed the inconsistencies in the 2016 budget.  The action, he said, was a departure from the past where such reports were either watered-down or not presented for debate and adoption.