Senate moves to compel CBN on budget submission

[TheNation]

  CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido   A Bill, which seeks to compel the Central Bank of Nigeria to submit its annual budget for approval by the National Assembly, scaled second reading on Wednesday.

The Bill entitled: “A Bill for an Act to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, Cap, C4 LFN, 2007, to compel the bank to submit its annual budget before the National Assembly and for related matters, 2012” was sponsored by Senator Ita Enang.

The controversy over whether the CBN should submit its budget for parliamentary scrutiny has been raging between the apex bank and the National Assembly.

The CBN hides under its Act which gave its board power to approve the bank’s budget to refuse submitting the bank’s annual budget to the National Assembly.

Senator Enang in his lead debate said that the Bill seeks to amend the CBN Act No. 63 of 2007 and make the apex bank to submit its budget to the National Assembly for approval every financial year as expected by law.

He said that the CBN Act  was signed into law on May 25, 2007 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The Act gave power to the CBN Board in section 6 (3) (a) to consider and approve the annual budget of the bank.

He noted that on July 30, 2007, the Fiscal Responsibility Act was assented to by late President Umaru Yar’Adua which provided that the listed agencies including the C BN should cause their budget to be submitted to the National Assembly.

He said, “This law is later in time and therefore supersedes any provision of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act.

“But the CBN has relied on the provision in Section 6 (3) (a) of the CBN Act to refuse to submit its budget to the National Assembly for consideration and approval, hence this Bill.”

Enang said the purpose of the Bill is to delete the provision of Section 6 (3) (a) of the CBN Act and also to ensure that the legislature which budgets for the nation is abreast of the volume of money available to, and released for economic activities by all persons, institutions and agencies.

 

 



TheNation