The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), has said Nigeria stands to lose N325.3 billion in the 2021 budget due to frivolous, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful expenditure proposals.
The Lead Director of the centre, Barrister Eze Onyekpere, in Abuja, said there are so many leakages due to the use of terms and estimates that are not clear and cannot be verified or monitored.
He said perpetuating agencies include the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development; the new National Commission for Persons with Disability; National Social Investment Office, Federal Ministry of Environment, among others.
“Already we have a cash deficit of N5.196 trillion in the budget and N4.2trn in new borrowing so in the 2021 budget, we are essentially proposing to spend borrowed money on frivolities, inappropriate and wasteful expenditure.
“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture for example, has requests for promotion and development of various crop value chains running into billions of naira.