The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, has said tha the delay in signing the 2014 Budget by President Goodluck Jonathan is because of some serious distortions made by the two chambers of the National Assembly on the Appropriation Bill.
Maku gave this indication while fielding questions from the State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said it was very sad that almost in the middle of the year, the Federal Government was operating without a budget.
The minister expressed the optimism that the reconciliation exercise undertaken by the ministry of finance and the national assembly would soon be concluded, leading to the signing of the budget.
“The Minister of Finance briefed us today at the FEC relating to the progress on the budget. It is very sad that we have almost entered the middle of the year and we don’t have a budget.
“This indeed is sad that the budget has taken so long in coming and practically we have less than seven months to execute the budget.
“We will do everything possible to reconcile the few differences that emerged in what was transmitted to the government by the national Assembly.
“There are few areas of distortions and they are those areas that are very serious and we think there is a need to look into them because of the negative impact those distortions may have on the implementation of the budget.
“There is a lot of conversation going on now between the Federal Ministry of Finance and the National Assembly on these issues. And very shortly we believe that we are going to reconcile those areas and then the final budget will be announced to the nation by the President,” he said.
