The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 2019 budget

  • Breaking: Buhari set to sign 2019 budget into law

    President Muhammadu Buhari is billed to sign the 2019 Appropriation bill this morning.

    The signing ceremony is expected to take place at the President’s office around 11am.

    Already at the Presidential Villa for the ceremony are the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters, Ita Enang.

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    Also at the ceremony are the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefuele, Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.

  • Why executive is yet to get Lagos 2019 Budget, by source

    Fresh facts were cited yesterday on why the Lagos  State House of Assembly has not transmitted the N894 billion 2019 Budget to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

    The 40-member legislature passed the Appropriation Bill on April 29, but decided not to forward it to the executive for the governor’s assent.

    A source within the House of Assembly told The Nation last night that the lawmakers plan to forward the approved bill with other bills for the governor to sign before the middle of the week.

    The budget was passed on April 29 and the usual thing after the passage on the floor is for the Clerk of the House to transmit a clean copy of the Bill to the governor for his assent.

    But by Friday last week, two weeks after the budget was passed, the governor is yet to sign the Appropriation Law, which will authorise the release of funds and the begin of its implementation.

    The non-signing of the law has raised speculations in many quarters and among Lagosians as to what is stopping the governor from signing the budget, which many believe has suffered unnecessary delays and subjected to unnecessary controversies.

    However, in an attempt to find out what was really delaying the signing of the budget, The Nation gathered that the budget might still be with the Assembly as there was no sign that it has been transmitted to the executive.

    When the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni, was contacted, he said as a civil servant, he could not speak with the media.

    He directed the reporter to the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Speaker or the Chairman of the House Information Committee.

    Though the information committee chairman was not available, the CPS to the Speaker, Musbau Razaq, promised to get across to The Nation later.

    But, several calls to him later for response was not answered.

    The Nation also approached the House Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, who said it was an administrative affair and that it was only the Clerk who could throw light on whether the budget has been transmitted to the governor or not.

    When told that the Clerk said as a civil servant he could not talk with a reporter, Agunbiade said he knew that the House has passed the budget and other thing left is administrative, which only the Clerk can speak on it.

    On the executive side, top government officials, including some exco members, only agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.

    They were emphatic on the fact that the Assembly had not transmitted the budget to the governor and that the Assembly was still holding on to the budget.

  • 2019 budget: N8.9trn inadequate to service 200m Nigerians – Expert

    Dr Patricia Auta, a financial analyst has described the 2019 budget as inadequate to meet the needs of the Nigerian population, which is put at more than 200 million.

    Auta said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

    She advised the government to work on increasing the size of the budget in 2020, even “if we have to borrow more money to finance it.’’

    According to her, government’s debt to the country’s Gross Domestic Project (GDP) is relatively low, therefore, government should take advantage of that and borrow more for infrastructure development.

    She, however, said that the spending must be on financially viable sectors and not on salaries, allowances and overhead.

    “The addition of N90 billion to the 2019 budget by the National Assembly would have been acceptable if it was to go to productive sectors, but as it is, it is money down the drain.

    “Nigeria needs to focus on improving its tax revenues. Tax holds a lot of potential for the country. Government needs to figure out how to tax the informal sector directly.

    “It’s a fact that many small businesses are not registered, therefore, they do not pay direct taxes such as company and income tax. The only tax they pay is VAT and it’s not enough.

    “There is a lot of revenue to be gained if government finds a way of bringing in the millions of MSMEs operating in the country into its tax net,’’ she said.

    Auta also advised the government to reduce its recurrent spending, which remains high at 80 per cent of overall spending.

    The Senate passed the 2019 Appropriation Bill of N8.92 trillion on April 30.

    The Legislature increased the budget by N90 billion from the N8.83 trillion presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on Dec. 18, 2018.

    The Statutory Transfer stood at N502 billion, Fiscal Deficit, N1.9 trillion, Special Intervention N500 billion, Recurrent Expenditure N4 trillion, Capital Expenditure, N2 trillion and Deficit to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 1.37 per cent.

  • Why we jerked up budget by N90b- by Reps Appropriation Committee Chair

    The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Harmonised report of the 2019 Appropriation bill with an increase of N90,327,519,458.

    President Muhammadu Buhari proposed a budget of N8,826,636,578,915 at a joint sitting on 18 December, 2018 but the House passed a budget of 8,916,964,098,373 on Tuesday.

    The clause-by-clause consideration and adoption of the report carried out at the Committee chaired by Speaker Yakubu Dogara witnessed no dissenting voice from the floor.

    Each of the clauses was carried with the banging of the gavel by the Chairman of the Committee even before the lawmakers could voice their decision.

    The lawmakers were silent through most of the clauses.

    Chairman,  House Committee on Appropriation, Mustapha Dawaki (APC, Kano) while briefing journalists after the passage of the bill, said the jerk up of the initial proposed budget was as a result of  the omission of some critical  items not captured by the presidency.

    He said a major increase was done on deficit whereby the fiscal deficit had to be increased to N1.906 trillion with N53b.

    He said: “This is because there are so many outstanding items not captured in the proposal. For instance, there was a Senate resolution for special intervention of N10b in Zamfara due to the crisis that occurred there.

    “Also not captured but equally critical was the severance benefits of outgoing legislators and their aides.

    “This severance packages always occurred once in four years, in the transition years and this amounted to N24.6b.

    “N3b was also included in the budget for the payment of allowances arrears of legislative aides it was not also captured initially.

    “We also provided additional funds for security agencies across board because we believed that more funds would improve the discharge of their responsibilities.

    “All these were captured under Capital Supplementation from Service Wide vote”.

    He also confirmed the parliament did not find it economically expedient to alter benchmarks proposed by the Presidency.

    On why the passage of the bill came this late in the year since the N8,826,636,578,915 proposal was transmitted to the National Assembly on 18 December, 2018, the lawmaker said Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should be blamed as they refused to turn up for budget defense and presentation sessions.

    He also noted that several break necessitated by festive periods and the general elections also contributed to the delay

    He said the document would be transmitted to President Muhammad Buhari on Wednesday for assent.

  • Lagos Assembly fails to pass 2019 budget

    • Committee increases budget size

    The Lagos State House of Assembly on Friday failed to pass the 2019 budget at its plenary.

    The House only took the presentation of the report of the Appropriation committee as contained in its order paper for Friday sitting.

    Observers of the Assembly had concluded when they saw the order paper for the day’s sitting that the budget would be passed as was always the case.

    The Chairman of the Appropriation committee, Gbolahan Yishawu presented the report at plenary and had to skip some parts because of its huge volume.

    After his presentation, Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade said because of the volume of the report and its technicality the House would have to allot another day for the comprehensive debate of the report.

    It is after the debate of the report and necessary amendments that the third reading of the Bill will be taken before its passage.

    Meanwhile, if the recommendations of the Appropriation committee is adopted by the House it means the budget size will increase from the original N852.317b to N874.96b; that is a difference of about N22.541b from the figure presented to the House by the governor in February.

    Although the House did fix a date to debate the report, it however adjoined sitting till Monday.

    For now Lagosians still have to wait for year 2019 budget to be passed almost five months into the new financial year which has never happened in the history of the state at least since the commencement of the current democratic dispensation.

     

  • Senate shifts passage of 2019 Budget to April 30

    The N8.83 trillion Appropriation Bill presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 19, last year for consideration will be passed on April 30, Senate President Bukola Saraki has assured.

    The Senate yesterday shifted the passage of the 2019 Appropriation Bill. Neither the Chairman, Senate Appropriations Committee, Danjuma Goje, nor his deputy, Sonny Ogbuoji, was on hand to comment on the documents.

    Besides, the non-availability of copies on the details of the budget proposal to senators also contributed to the shift in date.

    Details of the budget proposal were presented to the Senate Wednesday last week and the Senate president had assured penultimate week that the Senate might pass the budget on April 16.

    Announcing the shift in date, Saraki directed the Clerk of the Senate to make copies available to every senator latest by Monday to set the stage for the documents’ consideration the following day.

    Saraki said: “Some members have not got printed copies of the details and I have directed the Clerk to make sure that latest by Monday, we all have printed copies so that everybody can see the details of the budget, and by so doing we can now pass it on Tuesday next week.

    “We don’t want to run into problems where we pass it without details and our colleagues will start to comment.

    “So, Clerk, ensure that everybody has copies of the details by Monday and we will pass it on Tuesday.”

    Work on this year’s budget proposal has been slow, owing to the failure of many of the Senate Standing Committees to submit their reports in respect of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under their oversight.

    The various committee reports ought to have been submitted to the Appropriation Committee by April 11, as earlier directed by Saraki.

  • Make details of NASS budget open, Saraki orders

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has mandated the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Mohammed Sani-Omolori, to make details of the National Assembly 2019 budget available for passage into law.

    The mandate is contained in a letter addressed to the CNA dated 26 March, 2019.

    Saraki said that full details of the National Assembly budget with necessary line items should be made ready for passage as part of the National budget.

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    The letter signed by the Chief of Staff to the Senate President, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, is entitled,  “Subject: NASS budget details.”

    It reads in part, “The President of the Senate has asked me to request you to please ensure that the NASS Budget Details with all the line items are ready for passage along with the National Budget when Senate resumes next week. Thank you.”

    END

  • Breaking: Saraki gives committee Thursday deadline to submit budget report

    Senate President Bukola Saraki on Tuesday gave the Appropriations Committee till Thursday to submit the 2019 budget report.

    Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Sunny Ogbuoji told the Senate that only 24 out of 61 sub-committees had submitted their reports.

    Saraki insisted that the budget report must be presented on Thursday, April 11 ahead of the April 16 approval of the money bill.

    The Senate President noted the Appropriations committee will be forced to use Executive submissions if the sub-committees fail to submit their reports to the Committee by Wednesday.

    Saraki said, “It is unfortunate that only 24 committees have submitted their reports. Last week, we all took a decision here that we are not going to waiver on our position. Our position is very clear: that all committees should submit (their budget reports). And those that don’t submit, then the Appropriations Committee should use the Executive submission.

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    “That position is still where we are. And I want to appeal to all our committees that you really have just till tomorrow (Wednesday) to make sure that your reports get to the Appropriations Committee because Thursday, you must lay this report.

    “Vice Chairman of Appropriations Committee, if you don’t get report from our committees by tomorrow (Wednesday), then you just use the submission of the Executive. But come Thursday, you must lay that report.”
    President Buhari presented the N8.83 trillion budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly on December 19, 2018.

  • Senate uncovers ‘illegal’ firm under Industry Ministry

    The Senate Committee on Trade and Investment on Monday uncovered a Special Economic Zone firm allegedly floated illegally by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

    The ministry proposed to draw over N42billion vote for the firm from the 2019 budget.

    Following the discovery of the alleged illegal firm, the committee rejected the ministry’s N15.633 billion 2019 budget proposals presented to it for approval.

    Trouble started when the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, appeared before the committee to defend his ministry’s 2019 budget.

    Enelamah had in the course of presentation of the 2018 budget performance and 2019 proposals to the committee, tabled a booklet containing 2019 budget proposals for all agencies under his ministry.

    At the end of the presentation, Chairman of the committee, Senator Sabo Mohammed, referred him to item 2 on page 7 of the booklet, which has N42.091billion budgetary allocation for Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company not known to be one of the 17 agencies under the Ministry.

    The minister explained the company was established through the Presidential initiative and approval given for it at a cabinet meeting in May 2018.

    He said: “One of the areas that this government has focused on is infrastructure. The second area is industrialisation and the two have something in common.

    “If the government tries to do it alone, it would be extremely tasking. So the President directed that we should bring other partners that can combine with whatever monies we have to build world-class infrastructure which led to the establishment of the company in partnership with other investors.”

    Asked to explain the owners of the company, the minister listed the Federal Government and other shareholders.

    The committee chairman faulted the minister’s claim that the Federal Government is part of the company.

    Mohammed noted that a document obtained by the committee from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) containing information on how the company was registered showed the company’s name is Nigeria Sez Investment Company Limited and not Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company listed in the documents presented by the Minister.

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    He said: “Ownership of the company as clearly stated in the document obtained from CAC on the 26th of last month designated as Directors are Dr Bakari Wadinga, Mr Olufemi Edun and Ms Oluwadara Owoyemi.

    “The document clearly states that the company is a private company and that liability of the members is limited by share which has also shown, gives Federal Government 25% and 75% to the private individuals.”

    The minister made spirited attempts to convince members of the committee that the initiative was driven by the Federal Government.

    The conclusion of the committee was however that the process of establishing the company “is misnomer and nothing but financial ambush to Nigeria.”

    The committee directed the minister to forward detailed written explanation on how the company got into appropriation list, its management staff, list of its staff and statement of account, before the ministry’s 2019 budget proposal could be considered.

  • 2019 Budget: FCTA proposes over N30b for projects

    THE Federal Capital Administration (FCTA) has presented a National Priority Budget of N30,704,674.051 to the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The presentation was made by the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, when he led a delegation of senior FCTA officials to the National Assembly complex.

    According to the minister, the sum is based on the National Priority Budget Capital Envelop for the 2019 fiscal year for the FCT.

    He said 30 projects include provision of engineering infrastructure to several districts, payment of counterpart funds, construction of the Abuja rail mass Transit (LOT1B), Abuja Rail Mass transit (LOT 1and 3), completion of the International Technical and Vocational Institute Utako and four comprehensive science and technical colleges in Abaji, Kuje, Gwagwalada and Karshi  as well as  the provision of primary infrastructure – road, water, sewage and power supply – and mass housing districts among others.

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    According to a statement issued yesterday by his Chief Press Secretary, Anthony Ogunleye, on the performance analysis of various projects under the 2018 FCT National Budget, the minister explained that N32, 298,122,862.00 was appropriated. The sum of N9,689,436,861.77 was actually released, adding that of the 33 priority projects listed for implementation, only 15 were executed up to various degrees.