The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Judiciary earlier today, could not proceed with the budget session of FCT Judiciary
Due to non availability of required documents to access the 2020 budget performance of the FCT judiciary.
National Judiciary Commission (NJC), High Court, Maitama and FCT Magistrate Court, who were at the session were unable to make their budget presentation.
The Rep. Chudi Momah-led Committee wondered how it could meticulously scrutinize the 2020 funds utilisation of the agencies as well as examine their 2021 projections if budget performance of 2020 and the 2021 budget proposal were not available to the members.
According to the Committee, standard procedure is for necessary budget documents to be made available to the secretariat of the Committee much earlier than the days for budget session, to enable members have enough time to properly scrutinize the documents.
In defense of their failure to produce the critical documents, the affected agencies stated that copies of the documents in question were forwarded NJC, where they were expected to be transmitted to the Committee.
That was the usual tradition, they said.
Consequently, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Omowumi Olubunmi Ogunlola moved a motion for the Committee to go into an executive session.