The fixing of a new date for the passage of the 2016 budget on Wednesday ended the problems of errors and padding that has engulfed the document.
Weeks ago, the National Assembly had announced the rescheduling of the February 25 fixed for the passage of the budget following the issues trailing it, this week, it fixed a new date. But hours after the announcement, another controversy reared in on Thursday.
It emerged at an interactive session of senators and members of the House of Representatives with top government functionaries that included the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and that of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, that the Presidency has threatened to axe any head of agency who got his or her allocation increased at the National Assembly.
A memo to this effect was issued by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). Thus, during budget defence, the MDAs pleaded with the lawmakers not to increase their budget.
Speaking during an interactive session, the chairman of the Senate committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje, said the MDAs had told them that if their budget was increased, they would be punished as a result of the memo.
“The circular asked the officials not to come to the National Assembly to lobby anybody. They told us that if we increase their budget, they will be punished. If we go by it, the salaries of all agencies that have been slashed will be like that. If we don’t adjust it, it means you will retrench,” he said.
He said the allocation of N9 billion to the Ministry of Solid Minerals and N43bn to the Agriculture ministry punctured the claim of the administration to diversify the economy of the country.
“For us, we believe the amount cannot diversify the economy. There is no clear policy direction on the issue of N5,000 campaign promise. You want to give N5,000 to 1 million persons? How do you choose them? We are happy with it but when you want to do things, you have to do it properly,” he said.
The chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, pointed out that instead of N90bn, N50bn was allocated for pensioners in the budget estimate.
“There was no provision for payment of outstanding debts being owed contractors by the federal government. Also, it was $11 million that was allocated to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) office instead of the $1bn and we are a signatory to the UN agreement on it,” he said.
Senator Udoma responded that he was not aware of the memo, saying, “I’ll go back to check. I don’t think it is expected that you give us back the budget the same way you were given. Nobody expected that you will not make necessary changes.”
He also said that N1.8tr of the N2.2tr budget deficit will be sourced from loans both locally and abroad and that the remaining N400bn will be sourced from recovered stolen funds that have been established.
He disclosed that the $38 crude oil benchmark will be reviewed it by mid-year if the price of the commodity continues to nosedive.
“Even though the price is lower now, the expectation is that by the middle of the year, it will go up. If this does not happen, we will do a mid-term review and come back to the National Assembly,” he said.
Mrs. Adeosun was optimistic that the budget, if passed by the National Assembly, would stimulate the country’s economy. She said though the country’s economy was slow and not moving at the moment, government has proposed things that will change the situation from bad to good.
On the slashing of salaries of MDAs, she said: “We can work through it to look at the reduction but some of the agencies that have written you that they need more, we have information that they need less,” she said.
On the Treasury Single Account (TSA), she said about N2.9tr had passed through it but that the government cannot use it to fund the budget.
“There is a lot of misconception about the TSA. About N2.9tr has passed through it. Money comes in and goes out of it. We cannot just mop up the money and use it to fund the budget because some of the money belongs to MDAs. It will be very bad to sweep that money,” she said.
