The Chairman of House of Representatives committee on Legislative Budget and
Research, Mr. Timothy Golu, has ruled out the possibility of passing the 2018
budget into law before the end of the year, even as he disagreed with the
executive arm that paucity of funds caused the poor implementation of 2017
estimate.
Also,
commenting on the brewing crisis, a principal officer in the Red Chamber
observed that the ground was already being prepared for another round of budget
crisis between the National Assembly and the executive arm of government.
According to
him, the late submission of MTEF to the National Assembly as well as refusal to
comply with relevant laws guiding budget preparations had always been the
causes of challenges dogging Nigeria’s budgeting process.
The senator recalled how in 2016, the Senate returned the MTEF to the executive
arm of government due to lack of supporting documentation and details.
Golu, who
spoke to The Guardian in Abuja, explained that the December 31-target cannot be
realised due to the poor implementation of the 2017 budget, regretting that
while the government said they have released funds, most of the Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs) said they have not seen cash.
While
contending that there is no way the MDAs would start implementation of any
budget without money, the lawmaker, who represents Pankshin / Kanke / Kanan
federal constituency of Plateau State, blamed the executive for the problem
associated with the 2017 budget implementation.
He said:
“Lack of money is not the main problem, government is slow in taking decision,
it is slow in coordinating the agencies, it is slow in coordinating it’s
policies. The government is just slowing down most of these things.
“I believe
that if the government can accelerate action, if there can be proper
coordination between the ministry of finance and the budget office and then the
MDAs, these things could be sorted out.”
The lawmaker
decried the situation whereby everybody in the executive is saying different
things, stressing that they are not on the same page as far as budget data is
concerned.
“So that is
part of the problem; I don’t see us passing this budget before the end of the
year, because we need to do a good job. They have not submitted it, yet they
are talking about passage.
“We are yet
to start work on MTEF-FSP; the relevant committees are about to work on the
MTEF-FSP now, which should precede the submission of the main budget, so it
means that we would be handling the budget together with the MTEF-FSP, which to
us is not the problem, because we can do it.
“But to have
enough time for the various committees to do their work, it would be difficult
to pass this budget before December 31, because if we rush now and do an untidy
job, Nigerians would not be happy. So we need enough time to handle the items,
one by one, because the national assembly more than ever before is putting an
eagle eye on every item,” he remarked.
Further, the
legislator disclosed that the House of Representatives is doing what is
referred to in port parlance as destination inspection of the budget items,
stressing that since it is a law, “if we don’t do it well, the implementation
would be bad and it would affect all of us.”
He disclosed
that the leadership of the National Assembly has resolved to sit down and
analyze in details, every item so that by the time it becomes law, you know
that it would be implementable.
“That in
itself is a problem, because there should be clear implementation of the 2017
budget to give way for the coming budget, because if the previous budget is not
implemented then there would be no clearance for the new budget to take off.
So, if they want to harmonize or roll over some things, I just don’t know how
they are going to do it. “
On the level
of implementation of the 2017 budget, Golu stated: “We have not heard anything
about the 2017 budget yet. There is nothing happening. We have not heard about
the implementation up until now, even 10 percent implementation has not been
done and they are planning to bring 2018 budget.”
Some critical
minds in the National Assembly believe that the approval given by FEC, which
suggested that the executive had concluded action on the 2018 budget proposal
and ready to present same to the Legislature amounted to turning the law upside
down, which they say could kick start serious problems for the 2018 budget.
Picking holes
on the procedure, a member of Senate Committee on Appropriation drew attention
to section 18 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which clearly provides that the
President ought to await the consideration and approval of the draft MTEF by
the National Assembly before using same as basis for preparing the Budget
proposal.
He said:
“These are the issues we have always raised; why do we always behave as if we
are ignorant of the laws guiding budget preparation? Look, it is sad that
despite the presence of competent lawyers in cabinet, the executive is acting
as if the law does not matter.
“Apart from
the Vice President, you have the Attorney-General of the Federation there.
Better still, the minister in charge of Budget is not only a lawyer, he
was with us here as a member of Senate. Is it impossible to get the document on
MTEF submitted by the end of August as required by law? They ignored that
aspect of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and submitted MTEF in October.”
The lawmaker
added: “Now, to do a thorough job before getting the MTEF approved, it takes a
minimum of six weeks. That is why the law asked that the draft of the MTEF be
submitted to the National Assembly at least four months to the end of the year,
so that before the end of October of every year, the MTEF would have been
considered, approved and sent back to the President.”
He argued
that in the eyes of the law, “it is the approved MTEF sent to the President
that he will use to cause the national budget to be prepared and later sent
back to the legislature as Budget proposal.”
“At the
moment, the National Assembly has not even started considering the MTEF draft
because of its late submission and FEC has announced that it has approved the
Budget proposal. What a mess! Is the National Assembly supposed to play the
rubber stamp role and close its eyes to these irregularities? We wait and watch
how the whole thing will play out,” he explained.
Late
submission of MTEF to the National Assembly had in the recent past
produced serious problems for the early passage and implementation of the
budget.
Other lawmakers who expressed their minds to The Guardian on the issue
expressed regrets that no lesson has been learnt from the budget crisis that
had always been a source of quarrel between the executive and legislative arms
of government particularly since the inception of President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration.
Specifically,
the Fiscal Responsibility Act stated in section 18: “Notwithstanding anything
to the contrary contained in this Act or any other law, the Medium-Term
Expenditure Framework shall be the basis for the preparation of the estimates
of revenue and expenditure required to be prepared and laid before the National
Assembly under section 81(1) of the Constitution.
“The sectoral
and compositional distribution of the estimates of expenditure referred to in
subsection (1) of this section shall be consistent with the medium term
developmental priorities set out in the Medium Term expenditure Framework.”
Source: GuardianNG
