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Tag: budget

  • Buhari vows to prevent padding in 2017 Budget

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday vowed to prevent distortions of the 2017 Budget unlike the incidences where series of rogue projects and figures were injected into the 2016 Budget.

    He gave the assurance while receiving members of the Governance Support Group (GSG), led by Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, at State House, Abuja.

    According to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President promised to remove any item padded in the budget.

    “I am waiting for the 2017 Budget to be brought to us in Council. Any sign of padding anywhere, I will remove it.” He said

    Stressing that he had been in government since 1975, variously as governor, oil minister, head of state, and Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), he said: “and never did I hear the word ‘padding’ till the 2016 Budget.”

    He promised that such would never happen again under his watch.

    The President said the government stands by its tripod campaign promises of securing the country, reviving the economy, and fighting corruption.

    He however noted that some people are deliberately turning blind eyes to prevailing realities in the country.

    “They don’t want to reflect on the situation in which we are, economically. They want to live the same way; they simply want business as usual,” he said.

    On violence that attend rerun elections in the country, President Buhari said: “I agonized over the elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers states. We should have passed the stage in which people are beheaded, and killed because of who occupies certain offices.

    “If we can’t guarantee decent elections, then we have no business being around. Edo State election was good, and I expect Ondo State election to be better.” He stated

    On the anti-corruption cases before the courts, the President said he believed the cleansing currently going on “will lead to a better judiciary. When people are sentenced, Nigerians will believe that we are serious.”

    He equally told his guests that the progress being made in agriculture and exploitation of solid minerals is already giving a lot of hope.

    He said: “Our grains go up to Central African Republic, to Burkina Faso, but they can’t buy all the grains harvested this year. And next season should be even better.

    “We will focus on other products like cocoa, palm oil, palm kernel, along with the grains. We can start exporting rice in 18 months, and we are getting fertilizers and pesticides in readiness for next year.”

    Speaking on behalf of members of GSG, Hon. Nwajiuba said the government had succeeded to a large extent on the security and anti-corruption fronts, noting that the group was positive that the economy would soon experience a turnaround.

    The biggest constituency of the President, the group, noted was the poor and lowly, and thus recommended what it called “a social re-armament of the poor.”

  • Buhari may present budget 2017 December 1

    Buhari may present budget 2017 December 1

    • Senators: ‘MTEF unrealistic’

    President Muhammadu Buhari may present the 2017 Appropriation Bill to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 1.

    Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, gave the hint yesterday while contributing to the debate on the 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

    Akpabio said the Senate President, Bukola Saraki had on Tuesday gave indication  that President Buhari may be coming to the National Assembly to present the 2017 budget proposal on December 1.

    The information came as the senators overwhelmingly described the MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) as unrealistic.

    The lawmakers took turns to tear the MTEF and FSP to shreds saying the fiscal document should be returned back to the Presidency.

    Saraki saved the day by appealing to the lawmakers that though the assumptions and estimates in the MTEF were largely incorrect, they remained assumptions and estimates.

    Saraki noted that it was the responsibility of the Senate to work on the document and use its capacity to produce a realistic document.

    “We can see that we don’t have a perfect document in our hands but of course, we are looking at assumptions and assumptions may not necessarily be correct. I want to suggest that we send it to the committee. Of course, the committee will invite the relevant agencies and ministries of government.

    “They will come up with a more realistic MTEF/FSP because I believe also that looking at the date that this was submitted to the Senate, (4th of October) and we are debating it today on the 23nd of November. So, a lot of indices must have changed.

    “Yesterday, you made reference to the fact that the President may be coming to the chambers to submit and read the 2017 budget on 1st of December.

    “If that is the case and we send this (MTEF) back and wait for it to come and debate it, it means that we will not be able to meet that deadline. But if we send it to the committee level, they may come up with something within the next three days that will be much realistic,” Akpabio said

    He therefore appealed to the committee members to take into cognisance all the submissions and observations made today so that Senate can come up with a more realistic MTEF and FSP.

  • Reps probe Budget Office chief over N8b remittance

    Reps probe Budget Office chief over N8b remittance

    The Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze, is to be investigated by the House of Representatives over his directive to the Managing-Director of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to remit N8 billion to the treasury.

    The House yesterday set up  an Ad-hoc committee to investigate this trend and report back within one week.

    The motion which came under matters of urgent national importance with the title: “Urgent need to curb a developing trend where the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation now directs Chief Executives of agencies of government to remit the treasury capital funds already released to them,”  was sponsored to investigate by a member, Hon. Agbedi Frederick.

    Frederick noted that the N8billion the Budget DG wanted FERMA to remit to the treasury was from the N10.3 billion already released to the agency for the execution of capital projects, leaving it with only N2.3 billion.

    He said due to the compelling need for FERMA to repair and maintain dilapidated roads across the country, the National Assembly approved N21,816,546,653 out of which only N10,399,549,201 was released in October to the agency for execution of some critical capital projects which included so many failed and bad roads across the country.

    He said: “FERMA has already prioritised its capital projects while it has advertised (them) in line with the procurement Act 2007 and that contractors desirous to work for the agency have spent hard earned monies to buy tender documents, which they are now bound to lose by the directive from Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation.

    “The funds already released to FERMA were part of the funds already appropriated for FERMA in the Appropriation Act of 2016, passed by parliament, which is already a law, and that any amendment to this law can only be carried out by the National Assembly.

    “The directive from the Director-General Budget Office of the Federation cannot be said to be virement as virement can only be appropriately approved by the National Assembly, which has not done so in this case.

  • NPA, BudgIT, sign MoU on budget implementation

    The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BudgIT Information Technology Network to open up its budget for the public.

    The General Manager, Public Affairs, Chief Michael Ajayi, in a statement on Monday in Lagos, said the MoU would promote transparency and accountability.

    The Managing Director of NPA, Ms Hadiza Usman, said the partnership became necessary for the development of an open budget system platform and implementation of a public data dissemination programme.

    She said that this would help the organisation in blocking revenue leakages.

    Usman said the MoU would provide Nigerians with all the necessary information during implementation of the NPA’s budget.
    .
    She said BudgIT had achieved feats in socio-technological advocacy toward opening up of public budgets for citizens’ comprehension.

    Usman said with the MoU, NPA would be able to deliver its mandate and create more wealth for Nigerians.

    She said that the MoU would also assist NPA as a critical organ in the economic artery of the nation to promote effective and efficient management of all its terminals across the country.

    The managing director said the partnership, apart from promoting transparency in public expenditure, would also instil a framework for transparent budget provisions for the authority.

    She said the MoU would allow stakeholders to add their inputs, “encourage participatory governance by way of feedback and creates an enabling environment to encourage foreign investment’’.

    “The collaboration will ensure that key research, industry policies and innovations are effectively communicated.

    “It will also ensure that critical data are generated and made accessible for policy makers, private sector actors, stakeholders and the general public,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes Usman as saying.

    The Lead Partner of BudgIT, Mr Oluseun Onigbinde, said NPA was the first revenue generating government agency to make its budget public.

    He said the Management of the NPA would not regret keying into the programme.

    Onigbinde said the collaboration, apart from promoting probity, transparency and accountability, would also restore government and public confidence in the Management of NPA.

     

  • Senate rejects FIRS budget over alleged duplication of figures

    Senate rejects FIRS budget over alleged duplication of figures

    The Senate yesterday stepped down the 2016 budget of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over alleged shoddy preparation of the financial document.

    The upper chamber threw out the report of its Committee on Finance which considered the FIRS budget due to what it described as “the poor preparation of the document.”

    This is coming about four months after President Muhammadu Buhari submitted the 2016 budget of the tax collection agency to the Senate.

    The upper chamber referred the budget to its Committee on Finance for further legislative action on 25th of July, 2016.

    The Senate came hard on its Finance Committee for accommodating what it described as “glaring duplications in the budget estimates.”

    The lawmakers were categorical on their blame that the Finance Committee in its consideration of the N146,165,108, 293 billion budget proposal of FIRS failed to scrutinise subheads of the proposals.

    The Senate also agreed that the report submitted for consideration supported the Committee’s position that more oversight of the budget was necessary.

    Some Senators expressed concern that the FIRS budget estimates were “poorly compiled and incomplete.”

    They insisted that “the days where a partially prepared budget is sent to the Senate are over.”

    Some said the refusal to pass the budget should be “a strong signal to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that there will be no more business as usual in the budget process as the Senate awaited the arrival of the 2017 federal budget.”

    The lawmakers also frowned at what they called “ambiguous figures and questionable inclusion of capital projects” in the budget

    Some of the proposals in the budget included: Office materials and supplies -N440,000,000;

    Library books and periodicals – N68,000,000; Computer materials and supplies- N530,000,000; Printing of non security documents – N1,900,000,000; Printing of security documents- N250,000,000; Maintenance of office furniture and equipment- N90,000,000; Maintenance of building office- N300,000,000; Maintenance of office equipments – N266,000,000; Maintenance of computers and IT equipments- N120,000,000; Maintenance of plants/generators- N170,000,000;

    Cleaning and fumigation services -N750,000,000; Office rent- N885,000,000; Security vote- N250,000,000; Legal services- N500,000,000; Motor vehicle fuel cost – N700,000,000; Generator fuel cost – N750,000,000; Refreshment and meals- N586,000,000; Hire of hall, accommodation and events- N350,000,000; Honorarium and sitting allowance payments- N150,000,000; Publicity, advert and taxpayers education- N2,000,000,000; Medical expenditure- N700,000,000; Postages and courier services- N244,000,000; Welfare packages- N681,000,000; Tax audit investigation and monitoring- N2,500,000,000; and Tax investigation- N500,000,000.

    Other estimates are Purchase of vehicles- N2,300,000,000; Purchase of furniture and equipment-general-N5,180,000,000; Acquisition of land and building- N5,586,300,000; Construction of offices- new projects-N300,000,000; Rehabilitation/Repairs- N4,028,000,000; Rehabilitation/Repair of offices- new projects- N415,000,000; Other infrastructure- ICT New projects- N555,000,000;

    Other infrastructure-ongoing projects- N2,026,000,000; FIRS corporate headquarters- N10,000,000,000

    The senators described some of the proposals as “curious” and wondered why the Finance Committee simply lifted the figures contained in the submission of FIRS into its report for the consideration of the Senate.

  • Senate rejects FIRS budget over alleged duplications of figures

    Senate rejects FIRS budget over alleged duplications of figures

    The Senate Thursday stepped down the 2016 budget of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over alleged shoddy preparation of the financial document.

    The upper chamber threw out the report of its Committee on Finance which considered the FIRS budget due to what it described as “the poor preparation of the document.”

    This is coming about four months after President Muhammadu Buhari submitted the 2016 budget of the tax collection agency to the Senate.

    The upper chamber referred the budget to its Committee on Finance for further legislative action on 25th of July, 2016.

    The Senate came hard on its Finance Committee for accommodating what it described as “glaring duplications in the budget estimates.”

    The lawmakers were categorical on their blame that the Finance Committee in its consideration of the N146, 165,108, 293 billion budget proposals of FIRS failed to scrutinize subheads of the proposals.

    The Senate also agreed that the report submitted for consideration supported the Committee’s position that more oversight of the budget was necessary.

    Some Senators expressed concern that the FIRS budget estimates were “poorly compiled and incomplete.”

    They insisted that “the days where a partially prepared budget is sent to the Senate are over.”

    Some said the refusal to pass the budget should be “a strong signal to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that there will be no more business as usual in the budget process as the Senate awaited the arrival of the 2017 federal budget.”

    The lawmakers also frowned at what they called “ambiguous figures and questionable inclusion of capital projects” in the budget

    Some of the proposals in the budget included: Office materials and supplies -440,000,000;

    Library books and periodicals – 68,000,000; Computer materials and supplies- 530,000,000;

    Printing of non-security documents – 1,900,000,000; Printing of security documents- 250,000,000; Maintenance of office furniture and equipment- 90,000,000; Maintenance of building office- 300,000,000; Maintenance of office equipments – 266,000,000; Maintenance of computers and IT equipments- 120,000,000; Maintenance of plants/generators- 170,000,000;

    Cleaning and fumigation services -750,000,000; Office rent- 885,000,000; Security vote- 250,000,000; Legal services- 500,000,000; Motor vehicle fuel cost – 700,000,000; Generator fuel cost – 750,000,000; Refreshment and meals- 586,000,000; Hire of hall, accommodation and events- 350,000,000; Honorarium and sitting allowance payments- 150,000,000; Publicity, advert and taxpayers education- 2,000,000,000; Medical expenditure- 700,000,000; Postages and courier services- 244,000,000; Welfare packages- 681,000,000; Tax audit investigation and monitoring- 2,500,000,000; and Tax investigation- 500,000,000.

    Other estimates are Purchase of vehicles- 2,300,000,000; Purchase of furniture and equipment-general-5,180,000,000; Acquisition of land and building- 5,586,300,000; Construction of offices- new projects-300,000,000; Rehabilitation/Repairs- 4,028,000,000; Rehabilitation/Repair of offices- new projects- 415,000,000; Other infrastructure- ICT New projects- 555,000,000;

    Other infrastructure-ongoing projects- 2,026,000,000; FIRS corporate headquarters- 10,000,000,000

    The Senators described some of the proposals as “curious” and wondered why the Finance Committee simply lifted the figures contained in the submission of FIRS into its report for the consideration of the Senate.

    The upper chamber asked the Senator John Enoh led Finance Committee to reflect observations made by Senators in the report and report back to Senate in plenary within one week.

    The explanation of Senator Enoh about the rationale behind the approval of some capital projects in the budget did not go down well with majority of the lawmakers.

    Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Na’Allah, who stood in for the Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, promptly moved that the report be stepped down to give the committee time to correct the lapses.

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who summed contributions of Senators, noted the late submission of budgets of government departments and agencies, especially revenue generating agencies.

    Saraki noted that going forward, budgets of special agencies not included in the annual budget, must be submitted not later than the first quarter of the year.

    He said, “I will partly blame these things on the late submission of budgets. This practice where government agencies send their budgets late to the National Assembly and expect them to be passed immediately will not be tolerated.

    “They must submit their budgets early so that we can have enough time to work on their proposals.

    “If we do that, these issues we have here will not arise. The relevant committees should take note of that and ensure that the right thing is done.”

    Saraki ruled that the report be returned to Senator Enoh’s committee to rework.

    The Senate also failed to pass the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Authority Act, 2011 Amendment Bill 2016.

    Like the FIRS report, the report of the amendment bill was also presented by Senator Enoh-led Finance committee.

    The lawmakers fingered constitutional conflicts for their inability to pass the bill.

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu observed that it will be illegal to pass the amendment bill without first amending the constitution which stipulated how monies accruable to the Federation Account should be shared among the three tiers of government.

    The consideration of the report was subsequently suspended pending when the National Assembly will conclude its ongoing constitution review exercise.

    The constitution review is expected to address the conflicts observed in the report.

    Apart from the FIRS budget rejection, the Senate returned the 2017 to 2019 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the Presidency and turned down the bid by President Muhammadu Buhari to borrow $29.96 billion due to lack of supporting documentation and details of where the expenditures are to be allocated.

    It is the thinking of some observers that the failure to submit supporting documentation for examination has held up the 2017 budget process.

    The leadership of the Senate has long stated that they had hoped to resolve most outstanding issues of disagreement well ahead of receiving the 2017 budget.

  • Ajimobi appoints special adviser on budget

    Ajimobi appoints special adviser on budget

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has approved the appointment of Isiaka Olayinka Kolawole as his Special Adviser on Economic Planning & Budget.

    A statement by Kolawole’s personal assistant Olufemi Daniel said the appointment takes immediate effect.

    The appointee has garnered about 30 years professional experience spanning banking, strategic planning, budgeting, economic policy formulation and implementation, fiscal and monetary policy design and general administration at both private and public sectors.

    Kolawole was the former Special Adviser to governor on Economic Planning and Budget between 2014 and 2015 and was also the State Liaison Officer for the Federal Territory Abuja from 1999 to 2003.

    He was also a member of the Presidential Committee on the Development of National integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIMP), a Nigerian 30-year Master Plan (2013 – 2043).

     

  • PDP opposes Edo N5b extra budget

    The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the alleged plan by Governor Adams Oshiomhole to re-present a supplementary budget of N5 billion a few days to end of his tenure.

    The party dared the governor to take President Muhammadu Buhari on a facility tour of his private home to prove that the anti-corruption war is not selective.

    It accused Oshiomhole of hurriedly paying for contracts without due process.

    PDP State Chairman Dan Orbih addressed reporters yesterday in Benin, the state capital.

  • MDAs to submit budget 2017 electronically

    The Federal Government has directed all Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs)  to submit their 2017  budget proposals to a designated web portal domiciled in the Budget Office.

    This is a departure from the old practice of MDAs submitting their annual budgets through flash drives to the Budget Office. Sources said the new development was designed to stop the hitches of this year’s budget creeping in to next year’s budget. The Budget Office is expected to review it online and send it back online after corrections have been effected.

    The Minister of State in the Budget Ministry, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed who spoke yesterday in Abuja, sai the new process of submitting budget by MDAs was also designed to limit human interface and ensure better quality budget  2017.

    According to her,  the Federal Government has achieved 41.25 per cent in  2016  budget implementation as at October with a total disbursement of N2.5 trillion.

    Speaking in an interview with reporters in Abuja at the second presidential economic communications workshop, the minister also confirmed that the 2017 budget is ready but that the executive was waiting for the approval of Medium Term Expenditure  Framework (MTEF) currently in the custody of the National Assembly for approval.

    “We planned 2017 budget very carefully by putting in place an IT system that minimises human interface in the budget process to make the budget a very high quality budget. We now have a web portal whereby ministries prepare their  budget and submit online and the budget office reviews it online and send back via  online where corrections would be made. This will reduce significantly the human interface to ensure that we have a high quality budget,” she said.

    She said the executive arm was ready with 2017 budget, but waiting for the  National Assembly’s approval of MTEF before its submission to the National Assembly.

    With regard to the current budget, the minister said the 2016 has been very challenging to the Federal Government in terms of revenue receipt and budget implementation.

    She said: “It’s been very challenging for us. Apart from the fact that we are in recession, we have some of our people facing humanitarian crisis in the Northeast.  The Niger Delta crisis has pruned down revenue from oil and gas. We have a lot of projects that we planned to do but the revenue yield is not as we projected in the budget and this is largely due to vandalism of major oil infrastructures in the Niger Delta region.  We have minimal revenue but we have a lot of plans to share and allocate resources.”

    On what has been disbursed from the 2016 budget, she said the government has released about N2.5 trillion of N6.06 trillion 2016 budget. Of the releases, she said N753 billion was for capital projects, a significant portion of which was devoted to infrastructure and related projects. N108 billion for overheads, N117 billion as statutory transfers, N142 billion for consolidated pension, N1.2 trillion for personnel and N135 billion for service wide.

    The minister also said the government was currently developing a National Economic Recovery plan covering 2017- 2020.

    The plan, she said would guide preparation of annual budgets and guide the Economic Management Team and budgeting process over short to medium term.

  • Budget: Buhari writes NASS to borrow $29.96bn external loan

    Budget: Buhari writes NASS to borrow $29.96bn external loan

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday forwarded a request to the National Assembly to approve external borrowing plan of $29.960 billion to execute key infrastructural projects across the country between 2016 and 2018.

    The president also requested for virement of N180.8 billion in the 2016 budget for provision of needed votes for some critical sectors across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

    Buhari made the requests in two separate letters to the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, which were read on the floor of both chambers.

    The president, in the external borrowing plan, explained that targeted projects cuts across all sectors with special emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and employment generation.

    Other sectors he said included poverty reduction through social safety net programmes and governance and financial management reforms, among others.

    According to him, the cost of the projects and programmes under the borrowing (rolling) plan is $29.960 billion.

    This is made up of proposed projects and programmes loan of $11.274 billion, Special National Infrastructure projects $10.686 billion, Euro bonds of $4.5 billion and Federal Government budget support of $3.5 billion.

    He explained further that the loan was very necessary in view of the serious infrastructure deficit in the country.

    He said the country had huge infrastructure deficit and enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of dwindling resources.

    “This is in addition to the inability of our annual budgetary provisions to bridge the deficit. It has become necessary to resort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financing gap.

    “This will largely be applied to key infrastructure projects namely power, railway and roads among others,” he added.

    Buhari said the N180 billion would be moved from monies already appropriated for special intervention programmes both recurrent and capital for funding of critical recurrent and capital items.

    He said the request arose due to shortfalls in provisions for personnel costs; inadequate provision ab initio for amnesty programme; continuing requirements to sustain the war against insurgency; and depreciation of the Naira.

    The letter reads in part: “In the course of implementing the 2016 Appropriation Act, several MDAs have presented issues pertaining to salary shortfalls, the settlement of part of which has led to the depletion of the Public Service Wage Adjustment.

    “This Vote, which had a provision of N33,597,400,000, now has a balance of N2, 758,296,000.

    “The provision for NYSC in the 2016 budget is inadequate to cater for the number of corps members to be mobilised this year.

    “In fact, an additional N8.5 billion is required to cover the backlog of 129,469 corps members who are due for call-up but would otherwise be left out till next year due to funding constraints.

    “Similarly, the provision for meal subsidy for the Unity Colleges is inadequate for the number of students in the schools.

    “Due to the devaluation of the Naira, the budgetary provisions for the foreign missions are no longer sufficient to cover all their costs.”

    In another letter dated Oct. 24, the president also requested the National Assembly to approve the virement of funds appropriated for special intervention (recurrent) and special intervention (capital) to fund some critical recurrent and capital items.

    According to him, the reasons for the request for virement, include shortfalls in provisions for personnel costs; inadequate provision ab initio for some items like the amnesty programme; continuing requirements to sustain the war against insurgency and depreciation of the naira.

    “However, considering the fact that budgeted revenues are running behind target due to the renewed violence in the Niger Delta.

    “Also there are no supplementary revenue sources, the most viable option for now is the virement of appropriated funds from heads or sub-heads that may not be fully utilised before the end of this fiscal year,” Buhari added.

    An analysis of the proposed virement shows that Public Service Wage Adjustment (PSWA) will gulp N71,800 billion.

    “Contingency N1.2 billion, margin for increase in cost N2 billion for cadet feeding – Police Academy, Wudil, Kano, N932.4 million; amnesty programme N35 billion; internal operations of the armed forces N5.205 billion.

    “Operation Lafiya Dole N13.933 billion; NYSC N19.792 billion; foreign missions N14.667 billion, and augmentation of meal subsidy/direct teaching and laboratory cost of N900 million bringing the total to N166.630,886,954 billion.

    “Statutory transfers to Public Complaints Commission is estimated to gulp N1.2 billion while the virement in respect of capital expenditure for the Nigerian Air Force is N12.708 billion.

    “Capital Supplementation: Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) is N1.5 billion bringing the total to N14,208,367,476 billion.”

    Lastly, the president requested that N300 million be vired from the budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to fund the construction of 132KVA sub-station of fallen transmission towers, replacement of glass insulators at Gwaram, Jigawa. (NAN)