PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari yesterday signed this year’s N8.92 trillion Budget into law – reluctantly.
He said the N90.33 billion injected into the bill by the National Assembly would disrupt the implementation of the government’s policy, especially the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
He promised to engage the next National Assembly to smoothen the rough edges in the budget.
The President faulted the Appropriation Bill approved by both Chambers of the National Assembly because it was jacked up by N90 billion from the figure he proposed on December 18, last year.
The National Assembly had passed N8.92 trillion as the 2019 Budget Appropriation Bill as against the N8.83trn presented by the President.
The increase, according to the National Assembly, was to cater for security challenges in the country, packages for lawmakers and support for Zamfara State, among others.
But, signing the budget yesterday, the President faulted the increase in the budget, which introduced new projects.
He said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the leadership of the National Assembly and indeed all the Distinguished and Honourable members for all the hard work they put in to get us here.
“You will all recall that in December 2018, I presented our 2019 budget proposal with the theme: ‘Budget of Continuity’. Our goal was to use this budget to move the economy further on the path of inclusive, diversified and sustainable growth.
“Back then, I proposed a total expenditure of N8.83 trillion to the National Assembly for appropriation, targeting strategic and impactful projects and initiatives.
“However, the 2019 Budget I will be signing into law today provides for aggregate expenditures of N8.92 trillion. This is an increase of N90.33 billion over our submission.
“This increase reflects changes introduced by the National Assembly. In some areas, expenses we proposed were reduced while in other areas they were increased.
“There were also certain areas where new additions were introduced into the budget. More details of the approved budget will be provided by the Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning.
“Of course, some of these changes will adversely impact our programmes, making it difficult for us to achieve the objectives of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
“Although I will be signing this bill, it is my intention to continue to engage the National Assembly to ensure we deliver on our promises.”
According to the President, he will be engaging the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly as soon as they emerge, to address some of the concerns with the budget.
His administration will also look at how to improve the budget process and return the country to the January – December fiscal year timetable.
Buhari acknowledged the efforts of the Minister of Budget and National Planning, the Minister of Finance, the Budget Office of the Federation, and everyone who collaborated and worked painstakingly to produce the 2019 Appropriation Bill.
Speaking with reporters after the signing, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara noted that the executive must start with early and timely submission of budgets to the National Assembly to change Budget fiscal year.
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He said: “The issues he was raising concerning certain reductions that were made in the budget and some subheads increases were made and that such reductions made it a bit difficult for some of those projects to be implemented.
“But he said it is an ongoing process and will have discussion with the leadership the National Assembly to see what they will be able to do to in order to put that behind them and then execute whatever critical projects that suffered some form of hurt in the process of passing the project in the National Assembly.
“Above all, what I heard him say is the issue of aligning the appropriation from January to December just like the case in the private sector. I think that can really be achieved but it must start with the early and timely submission of the budget to the National Assembly from the executive.
“A situation where the budget is submitted in December, even if you shut down the entire National Assembly, we will not be able to achieve the January deadline.
“So, going forward, this is a collective exercise and the legislature. The budget is a law and being a law it falls within the purview by constitution and design of the National Assembly to make the law.
“In most cases, it is the National Assembly that decides how federally generated receipts should be expended and the National Assembly took that decision and we are glad that the President has signed it into law.”
On how to resolve the issue of the National Assembly either reducing or increasing budget figures, Dogara said: “Well, I have told you that the job of the National Assembly is not to agree with the executive. I don’t think any congress in the world does that.
“By the constitution and design, the executive informs us what they intend to do and the representatives of the people in National Assembly decides what is priority since they represent the people.
“It is going to be a knotty area, but we will continue to define the relationship between the executive and the legislature. Whether it is Britain or the United States (U.S.), wherever it is, there is always a strain on this issue of budget because it deals with high stakes distributional issues as to who gets what, which part of Nigeria gets this and that, so it will continually be an issue.
“We should not be defined by those issues rather we should define those issues by forming consensus that is the path to progress and we will continue to do that.”
Senate President Bukola Saraki arrived late for the ceremony but he was represented by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.
He arrived at the President’s Office at 11.17am.
Ekweremadu had said that Saraki would be coming straight to the Villa from the airport.
In a related development, Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige faulted the nation’s budgetary system alleging that since 2016, there has been distortions and insertions of budget lines under the guise of constituency projects by the National Assembly, saying such act has greatly affected the performance and government programmes and projects.
Ngige, who spoke at his valedictory session, explained that there have been insertions of what he described as questionable projects in the budget with money sliced off from aggregate allocation to main ministries and their parastatals to create new and many cases projects and programmes unrelated to the core mandate of the ministry.
He said: “This is clearly not in consonance with the spirit of Section 80 of the constitution for which the authors of the constitution gave powers to the elected representatives of the people to “look” at the budgets, which when presented by the Executives, still remains an “executive work proposal.”
“Therefore, let the NASS consult the Executive via robust defence sessions in order to allow the Executive to do its own work unfettered.
“In this light, it is a completely incongruous and serious act of indiscipline against the Public Service Rules (PSR) for Heads of Treasury and Non-Treasury funded parastatals to surreptitiously visit lawmakers to suggest to them or connive with them to disrupt already agreed budgets especially those they had defended in their respective Ministries. Some Chief Executive Officers of the parastatals in the ministry had lately engaged in this act and should retrace their steps as we move to the next level.”
The minister advocated for full funding of the annual budget, saying “budget funding up to 100% should also be the target of Government as anything less than 75% distorts programmes and projects execution, making for late completion and in some cases abandonment of the projects in subsequent Budget cycles.”
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