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.”