Senate: Polls, lack of funds stall PIB passage

Senate is scheduled to resume plenary tomorrow after a three-week recess and concentrate on the passage of the N4.357trillion 2015 budget.

Before then, the chamber is expected to consider and approve the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Senate is also expected to conclude the amendments of the 1999 Constitution, which includes financial autonomy for state legislatures.
Passage of the most important pending bill before the Senate and the National Assembly, the Petroleum Industry Bill may however, not get the attention of lawmakers before the February 14 polls.
Daily Sun gathered from a member of the PIB Joint Committee, who was not authorised to speak, that, “as things stand, we may not do anything on the PIB before next month’s polls because one, we need money to conclude our work and it’s not forthcoming. Secondly, no Senator is ready to sit down now and look at any document because most of us are bogged down with re-election matters.
“The earliest time we can even look at the document will be after the Presidential and National Assembly polls.” Senate will also deal with the oil benchmark for the 2015 budget which government pegged at $65.