By Philip Buda Ladu
The Parliamentary Sitting of the Transitional National Legislature scheduled for Wednesday the 16th of March 2022 was called-off abruptly.
The August House was supposed to table the budget in its third reading with the incorporation of some amendments by the Finance Committee.
This made some lawmakers who were with the information ruled and announced by the Rt. Hon. Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba on Monday that the sitting was on Wednesday, to make a U-turn back home after wasting their fuel to the Freedom Hall.
John Agany Deng, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Information, Telecommunication and Postal Service said on Wednesday that the adjournment of the previously announced sitting was due to late compilation of the Finance Committee amended report.
“In fact we are supposed today (Wednesday) to table the National Budget for the third reading but it has been adjourned because yesterday they corrected the document; they have already made the amendments that are supposed to be corrected, and then it was finished late yesterday so the document is not ready,” Agany explained the adjournment of the sitting.
“Now they are photocopying it, I think maybe at the end of the day they will be calling for an extraordinary sitting. So, definitely tomorrow (Thursday) we will table it for the third and fourth final readings and that will be the end of it,” affirmed the Parliamentary Spokesperson.
Agany underscored that if the Finance and Planning Committee will photocopy and produce the amended Financial Bill report enough for the 600 plus Members of the Transitional National Legislature then definitely they would have the sitting on Thursday.
“It got delayed because first clerically you need to correct the amendments which was deliberated, and when the deliberation took place, definitely people have to reconcile the inputs that have been contributed in the debate to be incorporated into the document and then at the end you need to finalize it, in order to take it for the third reading,” he lamented.