Senate moves to create alternative budget office

The Bill for an act to establish an independent National Assembly Budget Research Office (NABRO) scaled second reading at the Senate yesterday.

Sponsored by the Senate Majority Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, the bill seeks to provide the National Assembly with objective, timely and non-partisan analysis of economic information needed for budget decisions.

In his lead debate, Ndoma-Egba said the bill was very important given that the budget office would prepare and present to the National Assembly periodic forecasts of economic trends and alternative fiscal policies.

'It will also update the National Assembly on the extra-budgetary expenditure incurred as well as appropriated items which were not funded by the government within a financial year'.

He added: 'I believe that most of the difficulties we encounter and the disagreements experienced among legislators in the course of Medium Term Expenditure Frame Work/ Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) debate would be minimized if we pass this bill and it becomes law'.