Abuja – The Senate on Wednesday mandated its Finance and Appropriation Committees to analyse the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper before the lawmakers commence debate on the document.

The debate on the document was deferred during Wednesday’s plenary following arguments by some senators that the document was critical to the 2014 budget and deserved proper scrutiny.

Leading the debate, Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP-Cross River), informed his colleagues that the MTEF formed the fiscal foundation and basis for the 2014 budget.

Ndoma-Egba urged the Senate to approve the document to enable the executive make good preparation on the 2014 budget.

Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP-Abia) suggested that the document be forwarded to the relevant committees to study and present their analyses to guide the debates.

Abaribe said it would not be proper for the senate to rely solely on the figures presented by the executive.

“I am of the view that our committee on finance should have looked at this document and give us their own insight into these figures.

“We cannot just rely on the statistics coming from the executive because there are a lot of assumptions and would, therefore, not allow us to make contributions from an informed perspective,’’ Abaribe said.

on his part, Sen. George Akume (APC-Benue), said the document was flawed because it did not contain inputs by relevant agencies as required by provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA).

He insisted that the senators must have a good understanding of the fiscal issues raised in the MTFF to ensure that a robust debate was carried out on the document.

“This is a very important document, but from the lead debate adequate consultations were not done before it was prepared.

“This document is flawed and should be reworked by the executive before sending it back to us.

“If this is done the relevant agencies listed in the FRA will be consulted to make inputs into the document,’’ Akume said.

Senate President David Mark ruled that it was best for the relevant committees to scrutinise the document for any shortcoming and report back for debate.

Mark said there were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed to enable the senator conduct a robust debate on the document.

“Let the committees on finance and appropriation go and study the document and bring out the issues for us to debate.

“It is for the committees to go and fish out the shortcomings and bring it back as a more prepared document because this document is as important as the budget,’’ Mark said.

The debate was subsequently deferred until the committees report back to the Senate in plenary within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, a Bill for an Act to Amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act also passed second reading at the Senate on Wednesday.

Sponsor of the bill, Sen. Odion Ugbesia (PDP-Edo), said the amendment sought was to ensure that the appointment of chairman, secretary and members of the Corporate Affairs Commission Board was subject to the Senate’s confirmation.

Ugbesia also said he was seeking for an amendment to the bill which would make the budget of the commission subject to the scrutiny and approval of the Senate.

No senator spoke against the bill, which was referred to the Senate Committee on Trade to report back to the Senate in plenary within two weeks. (NAN)