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.
