The Senate Leader said March was the deadline for the implementation of the 2015 budget, adding that it was the desire of the Senate to pass the 2016 budget before that time
He said contrary to reports, the Senate did not suspend its passage indefinitely, but only said that the February 25 deadline ‘may not be feasible’.
He said it was the wish of the National Assembly to pass the budget five weeks before the expiration of the period set for the implementation of the 2015 budget, but that was not possible due to some errors.
“We have not postponed it indefinitely; we are saying that with the current developments, the February 25 deadline we gave ourselves may not be realistic.
“That is why we now said it is not possible to say we will come back on 25th and say this is the budget; we are not saying that we have suspended it indefinitely.
“The reason we fixed 25th was because we wanted to have a gap of five weeks.”
He said the gap would have enabled the Senate fix whatever issues needed to be handled before the lapsing of the March 31 deadline for the implementation of the 2015 budget.
Ndume said the National Assembly leadership had met with ministers to iron out the grey areas and make corrections.
He also assured that the Senate would ensure strict compliance with the implementation of the budget.
He said that once funds were available, he was convinced that the present administration would ensure thorough implementation of the budget.
