The last is yet to be heard on the controversial 2016 budget as the presidency is alleged to have discovered some inconsistencies in the document and is set to return the bill to the National Assembly for reworking.

It was earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari had intended to assent to the bill before travelling off to China, however, with the latest discovery, the President will not be signing the bill anytime soon.

It remains to be seen if this signals a face-off between the executive arm of government and the legislators, considering that the 2016 budget has so far drawn bad blood, accusations and counter-accusation between both arms of government.

According to Punch Newspapers, all the Ministers, except one, in President Buhari’s cabinet had errors in their budget.

The discovery was made during the Federal Executive council chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday.

The lawmakers are said to have changed the original sums in the budget and replaced with reduced amounts.

According to a senior civil servant, who spoke to Punch on the condition of anonymity: “Only one minister did not have any problem with the budget details the National Assembly submitted to the President.”

“There are instances, where they completely removed projects and padded the budget by inserting theirs. The lawmakers should know that the budget is the document of the executive and it takes responsibility for it.”

“The coastal railway project is one of the reasons the President is in China. N60bn counterpart funding has been provided.”

“We are working on two major rail arteries. The Lagos-Kano line and the Calabar – Lagos line. While the Lagos-Kano provision was left intact by the National Assembly, the Calabar – Lagos line was removed.”

“Another major area noticed was the completion of on-going road projects. While the executive in the budget provided for the completion of all major road projects, the National Assembly reduced the amounts budgeted for them and instead, inserted new road projects which studies have not even been conducted.”

“The amounts allocated by the National Assembly for the projects can neither complete the ongoing projects nor the new ones. At the end of 2016, no significant progress would have been made.”

“Another major flaw in the budget is in the health sector. Proposals made for the purchase of essential drugs for major health issues such as Polio and AIDs were removed by the National Assembly.”

Furthermore, changes were made in the areas of agriculture and water resources.

Faced with a falling economy, the Nigerian government had banked its hope on agriculture to help build a stronger economy, however, the National Assembly also changed figures allocated to this sector.

According to Vanguard, who also spoke to a senior civil servant on the condition of anonymity: “It was observed that certain provisions made in the areas of agriculture and water resources to further the Federal Government’s diversification project were either removed or reduced while the funds were moved to provisions of rural health facilities and boreholes, for which provisions have been made elsewhere.”

“The President is desirous of signing the Bill into law so that implementation of the provisions could begin in earnest for the benefit of the people. That is why the moment he received the document on Thursday, a meeting was convened for Friday to immediately start work on it.”

The health ministry was not spared as several budgetary allocation made for it was slashed by the lawmakers.