By Henry Umoru

ABUJA—MOVES by the Senate to amend the 58 years old Fiscal Responsibility Act, yesterday, reached its final stage following the submission of the report upon which the amendment would be predicated.

The report by the Technical Committee on Budget Reforms which was presented to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, by the Leader of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, recommends that annual budgets must be presented in the first week of September and that the budget must be considered within two months and passed on the 30th of November at the latest.

Against this backdrop, the Senate has expressed the need to repeal and re-enact the 1958 Act to check the anomalies in relation to the fiscal year.

It would be recalled that Saraki had constituted a Technical Committee on Budget Reforms to produce a Budget Reform strategy paper and draft Budget Reform Bill, just as the reform is to improve budget formulation, enactment, implementation, and monitoring evaluation with a view to improving budget performance.