The Budget Office has been accused to have cloned the 2015 appropriation of Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) as the agency’s 2016 budget estimate.

The Chairman,House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market, Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf, said: “We expected to take the budget defence of the IST, but we realised that the budget provision for IST in the 2016 budget proposal is just a copy, exact copy for the 2015 appropriation. “It is word for word, figure for figure. And items that were dealt with and completed in 2015 were just repeated.”

It was disclosed by the committee that the Senate was as well aware of the budget repetition. Consequently, the budget defence session was stood down as the committee resolved that any continuation would amount to an exercise in futility.

Asked further whether the 2015 budget for the agency was implemented, Yusuf who blamed the Budget Office for the bizarre development said: “We looked into the budget about two weeks ago and, apart from the issue of personnel that the agency treated late in 2015, the 2015 budget for IST was ok.” When asked for comments by journalists, Ngozi Chianakwalam, the apparently dazed Chairman of the IST, declined to speak.

However, Yusuf said there would be tripartite meeting involving the House, Senate and the Ministry of Finance to sort out “this peculiar and abnormal development in the history of the presentation of annual budget proposal.”

The 2016 appropriation bill before the National Assembly is expected to be passed by 25th February, however, going by the recent dissatisfaction expressed by the Lawmakers over errors and sharp practices observed in the budget document, deliberations continue.