Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Tuesday announced that President Muhammadu Buhari has formally sent a corrected version of the 2016 budget to the National Assembly.
Saraki read a letter from the President notifying lawmakers of corrections to the budget during senate plenary.
A document containing the corrections was attached to the letter.
The president in his letter said the “draft bill remains the same and there are no changes in figures”.
The letter reads: “It will be recalled that on Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, I presented my 2016 budget proposals to the joint sitting of the national assembly. I submitted a draft bill accompanied by a schedule of details.
“At the time of submission, we indicated that because the details had just been produced, we would have had to check to ensure that there were no errors in the detailed breakdown contained in the schedule.
“That has since been completed and I understand that the corrections have been submitted.
“The national assembly would therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week. It appears that this has led to some confusion.
“In this regard, please find attached the corrected version. This is the version the national assembly should work with as my 2016 budget estimates. The draft bill remains the same and there are no changes in any of the figures.”
Saraki directed Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, to ensure that copies of the corrected document are immediately circulated so that the Senate will start debate on Wednesday.
The 2016 budget generated controversy last week after senators said the documents presented by the President were missing.
Lawmakers on Thursday accused Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, of distributing a doctored version of the budget different from what Buhari submitted in December.
