BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

ABUJA—THE Senate yesterday, suspended its scheduled debate on the 2014-2016 Medium Term Fiscal Expenditure,MTFE, for two weeks,saying the action was to allow relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies,MDAs, to make useful inputs to the document.

To this end, it directed its committees on Finance and Appropriation to analyse the document and submit back within two weeks before lawmakers begin debate on it.

The development which came during plenary,was sequel to argument raised by some senators that the document was critical to the 2014 budget and so, needed thorough scrutiny.

Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba,PDP, Cross River Central,who led the debate on the issue,said the MTFF formed the fiscal foundation and basis for the 2014 budget.

He appealed to his colleagues to approve the document,saying such was necessary in order to enable the executive make good preparation for the 2014 budget.

Contributing to the matter,Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe,PDP,Abia South, suggested that the document be forwarded to the relevant committees to study,saying  analyses of the committees would guide the debates.

Senator Abaribe observed that it would not be proper for the Senate to rely solely on the figures presented by the executive.

He said: “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.”

Also speaking, Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, APC, Benue North West, said the document was flawed because it did not contain inputs by relevant agencies as required by provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act,FRA.

Akume argued that his colleagues must have a good understanding of the fiscal issues raised in the MTFF, saying such was necessary to ensure that a robust debate was carried out on it.