President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, has warned that any Minister or head of government agency who failed to defend their budget by the end of October will not be given another opportunity by the National Assembly to do so.
According to him, the lawmakers will not accept any attempt to prevent them from passing the 2020 budget by December.
The lawmaker was speaking at the official unavailing of the 2019/2023 Legislative Agenda of the House of Representatives on Friday.
Lawan insisted that only the October window will be available for budget defence by all Ministries and their agencies.
According to him, “We will not allow anybody to frustrate our effort towards passing the budget before the end of the year.
“Any Minister or Head of MDA who decides to travel and not be available for budget defence should know that we will work on the budget without them and pass the budget so that implementation can start.”
Lawan who is also the Chairman of the National Assembly pointed out that the Senate will pass the Production Sharing Contract bill for a third reading on Tuesday and expect the House to do the same.
