The bill for an act to establish the National Assembly budget and research office has scaled second reading in the Senate.

This followed the presentation of the lead debate on Thursday at plenary by Senate leader Opeyemi Bamidele on behalf of the sponsor, Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau.

The bill is titled: “A Bill for an Act to Establish National Assembly Budget and Research Office”, which sought to provide the National Assembly with objective, timely and non-partisan analysis needed for economic and budget decisions.

Leading the debate, Mr Bamidele said the bill was read

 for the first time on Wednesday, February 28.

He said it was an initiative of the Nigerian legislature to support its work in its engagement with the executive on the national budget.

According to the lawmaker, the National Assembly currently operates in a manner in which legislation is made and decisions are taken without relevant consideration of their financial and economic impacts.

“The proposed office will report annually to the Senate and House of Representatives all items from the preceding financial year from which no appropriation was made by the National Assembly,” he said.

The lawmakers said the budget office would, among others, scrutinise budget estimates of the executive and monitor the implementation of annual budget estimates.

In supporting the bill, Senate Chief Whip Ali Ndume said the bill was long overdue.

“We tried severely, but it did not scale through for technical reasons. In fact, we even had a committee on the bill,” said Mr Ndume.

In his remarks, the deputy Senate president, who presided over the sitting, said the office, when in place, would serve as a reservoir of information for the National Assembly.

“It has to be in place to meet up with international best practices. A legislature without information will not be able to perform its functions adequately.

“We are hopeful the president will sign it when presented to him,” he stated.

Mr Barau, thereafter, referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Appropriation for further legislative action and to report back in four weeks.

(NAN)