Budget Office defends legality of 2024, 2025 budget re-enactment
..denies fiscal breaches
The Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) has firmly dismissed allegations that the repeal and re-enactment of the 2024 and 2025 Appropriation Acts constitute a constitutional breach or fiscal illegality.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, clarified that the legislative action was a necessary legal instrument to align fiscal realities with governance, rejecting the description of the process as a constitutional impossibility by critics.
Addressing the core constitutional concerns, Mr. Yakubu explained that while Sections 80–84 of the Constitution establish the framework for public expenditure, they do not prohibit the National Assembly from repealing and re-enacting an Appropriation Act when the public interest demands it.
He maintained that once such a bill is passed by the legislature and assented to by the President, it becomes valid law.
The Director-General further argued that extending the operational lifespan of a budget is a legitimate exercise of legislative power, intended to ensure the orderly completion of obligations and the settlement of certified claims without disrupting government machinery.
The Budget Office also strongly refuted claims that the Federal Government has been engaging in expenditure without appropriation.
Yakubu described these assertions as a conflation of distinct public finance concepts, noting that the re-enactment process is designed specifically to consolidate and regularize fiscal authority.
He contended that the legal test for proper expenditure is whether it is supported by lawful appropriation, asserting that the government has consistently sought legislative oversight through recognized instruments to cover project commitments that straddle fiscal periods.
On the contentious issue of transparency and the non-availability of budget documents, the Office acknowledged the validity of public interest but attributed the delays to the rigorous process of document authentication.
Yakubu explained that while the Fiscal Responsibility Act mandates transparency, immediate publication is often constrained by the need to ensure document integrity and avoid the circulation of conflicting drafts while legislative harmonization is ongoing.
The Budget Office concluded by assuring the public that authenticated versions of the enrolled Acts would be released through official channels as soon as they are finalized.
Mr. Yakubu reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to fiscal discipline and promised to strengthen citizen-facing communication to improve public understanding of the government’s policy choices.