By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—EIGHT standing committees of the House of Representatives that failed to submit budget reports of  Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government they are supervising have lost the right to conclude the exercise.

File: Buhari during the 2016 budget presentation to the National Assembly.

The eight committees are expected to hand over their budget proposals to the House Committee on Appropriation with immediate effect.

The committees that failed to submit their reports as mandated by the House leadership include Public Accounts Committee, PAC; Loans, Aids and Debts; Gas Resources; Public Service Matters; Maritime; Safety Education Admin; Housing; Interior and   National Security.

After 12 hours of grilling some of the committees, Friday night, the House  Committee on Appropriation formally closed the collation of reports on the 2016 budget from standing committees of the House (sub-committees to the Committee on Appropriation)   Friday, February 26.

This was contained in a  statement issued and signed by the committee’s chairman, Abdulmunin Jibrin, APC, Kano, who  said in all, 60 substantive -committees presented their reports and recommendations, covering improvements, shortcomings and actions to be taken in their respective MDAs.

Jibrin praised the committees for their cooperation and the that they “heeded our call to submit their reports within the deadline.

‘’This is for the overall interest of the nation and the commitment of the National Assembly to pass the 2016 budget at the latest by the second week of March”.

“However, it is regrettable that some committees still did not meet the deadline and have not submitted any reports.  Due to pressure of time, because we have to tidy up the final report with the Senate, the Committee on Appropriation will have to take over the work of such committees by appropriating funds for the MDAs that they supervise.”

The committee will also interface with officials of the Ministry of Finance, Budget Office on March 3.