Reps urge Buhari to sign National Assembly Budget Office bill

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

House of Representatives has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO) bill passed recently by the federal legislature.
Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Budget and Research, Timothy Golu, made the call in Abuja yesterday while speaking with journalists.
Golu said NABRO, if established, would add value to budget planning and implementation and also reduce needless frictions between the legislature and executive arms of government.
Besides, the lawmaker said the agency, if established, will also bring about greater transparency in the budgetary process.
He noted that it will also end the era of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) allocating projects to states, without assessment of the area.
He said: “As soon as NABRO comes on board, it will have the responsibility to scrutinise the budget, be involved in the selection of projects and end this method of a ministry or an MDA deciding to award a project to any state without having in mind the needed assessment of that state or even the criteria used in allocating those projects. “What we will also achieve is that any item that is not approved by NABRO would not to submitted to the committee on appropriations, so that it would eliminate this physical contacts with MDAs which bring about the talk about political, economic and whatever considerations, so that we will be doing projects that will meet the needs of the people. If the president signs this bill, he will be surprised at the quality and direction of the 2018 budget.”

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