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Ministries, agencies face cash squeeze over budget delays

Many of the MDAs cannot meet some of their needs such as paying for rents of their offices, paying cleaners and buying some stationaries for…

Many of the MDAs cannot meet some of their needs such as paying for rents of their offices, paying cleaners and buying some stationaries for office use.
Sources at the offices, who did not want to be named, said most allowances that are due to staff have not been paid, while some agencies owe salaries.
Although the law allows for the provisional warrant for MDAs to access some monies up to 60 % of their last year’s budget before passing a new budget, it was learnt that accessing such funds is becoming difficult, thereby stifling projects execution.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan may sign the 2014 federal budget this week or before end of the month, a presidency source told Daily Trust.
The long delay in signing the budget is largely attributed to the discrepancies in the allocations to the ministries and agencies.
Over a month ago, the National Assembly passed the N4.6 trillion budget and forwarded it to the presidency for assent.
Speaking on the budget delay, the finance minister’s spokesman, Paul C. Nwabuikwu, said the important thing was that both the National Assembly and the Executive are concerned about the delay and they are working harmoniously to resolve all the pending issues.
“There is good chance that the budget will soon be signed any moment from now,” he said in a statement.
“The delay is due to the concern to avoid some of the mistakes made last year and to avoid any fatal damage that will affect the implementation of the budget.”
He denied knowledge of MDAs’ inability to access money from the finance ministry.

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