2016 Budget Fraud: Buhari orders probe; wants questionable allocations scrapped

Minister of Budget and National Planning Senator Udoma Udo Udoma addressing the Management Staff during assumption of Office at Budget And National Planning

A panel is to critically look into the budget item-by-item, incident-by-incident, with particular attention to the reactions from the National Assembly.
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.
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.

(c) Premium Times