ABUJA – SENATORS yesterday took a swipe at the Coordinating
Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
accusing her of crippling the nation’s economy.
Senators had met in a closed-door meeting and accused the
minister of destroying the economy through some of her policies and her refusal
to release funds for the execution of capital projects, while allocation for
the recurrent expenditure was on the increase.
The Senate President, David Mark had in the secret meeting
ordered different committee heads to expedite action on budget defence so that
it would be passed before the senate commences another recess for the general
elections.
Senator Mark regretted that about four months after the
presentation of the 2015 Appropriation Bill, nothing much had been done on it.
Although, journalists were not formally briefed on issues
that dominated the secret meeting, some senators who spoke to Vanguard,
preferring not to be mentioned, said the Senate President convened the session
principally to draw the attention of the legislators to what he called the slow
pace of work being accorded the budget treatment.
Mark was said to have expressed fears that if the budget was
not expeditiously treated and passed before the National Assembly proceeds on
another round of recess to witness the March 28 and April 14 elections, it may
delay attention, thus, affecting the smooth running of government.
To this end, he therefore asked all Senator, especially chairmen of committees handing the defence of ministries, parastatals and agencies’ budgets to brace up with a view to completing their assignments and submitting their work for consideration before the election recess.
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