Cabinet ministers yesterday continued to file past the Finance and Budget Committee of the Senate to defend their budgetary allocations for 2017.

Members of the Committee on Finance and Budget of the Senate have been burning the midnight candle as they scrutinize the Finance Bill of the Republic of Cameroon for 2017 Finance year.

Senator Elie Victor Tsoungui Essomba and his colleagues have been grilling cabinet ministers on their priorities for the 2017 financial year as they file-past to defend their budgetary allocations.

Tuesday December 6, 2016 was just another day that the senators worked till the early hours of Wednesday as 17 cabinet ministers were programmed to defend their budgets before the committee.

The Ministers of Basic Education, Sports and Physical Education and Communication took their turns before the committee on Tuesday morning, while Secondary Education, Youth and Civic Education, Arts and Culture, Public Contracts, Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, Water Resources and Energy, Labour and Social Security, amongst others, explained priorities of their ministries in 2017.

The exercise, which began on Sunday December 5, 2016 with the Minister of Finance, was even more intense yesterday as the November Ordinary Session will statutorily end tomorrow, Friday December 9, 2016.

The 2017 Finance bill which presents a budget balanced in revenue and expenditure at FCFA 4, 373.8 billion was earlier adopted in the National Assembly and forwarded to the Senate for further scrutiny.