President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an immediate
investigation into allegations of fraudulent padding of allocations in the 2016
budget, with strict orders that all cases of discrepancies, errors and
ambiguities be resolved promptly, a senior government official told PREMIUM
TIMES Thursday.
An extensive analysis of the budget by PREMIUM TIMES exposed
questionable details, with the National Assembly on Tuesday suspending
deliberations on the document indefinitely.
The chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje,
(APC-Gombe State), and his House of Representatives counterpart, Abdulmumin
Jibrin (APC-Kano), said the suspension was necessary to enable the National
Assembly carry out “proper clean-up” of the budget.
Earlier, a senior presidency official blamed “budget mafia” for
the controversial contents, in reference to civil servants responsible for
preparing the budget.
Another top administration official on Thursday gave PREMIUM
TIMES further details on how the government was responding to the embarrassing
budget allocations.
He pleaded anonymity, and said the government was avoiding
publicly stating its position on the matter for now to avoid playing into the
hands of its critics.
The official said both the Finance and Budget & National
Planning ministries were determined to effect the necessary corrections and
turn in a clean copy of the document for approval.