· Udoma asks legislature to retain 30% capital provision
• More padding uncovered in Appropriation Bill
By Ndubuisi Francis and Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
Following the concerns raised over the mistakes, alterations and padding in the 2016 budget, which forced the National Assembly to defer its passage, officials of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and Budget Office of the Federation met Tuesday night with the leadership of the National Assembly, where it was agreed that the errors in the budget will be addressed by the executive.
A source in the Budget Ministry informed THISDAY yesterday that the meeting with the leadership was fruitful and officials led by the Minister, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, explained that the errors occurred due to the zero-based budgeting process, which was new to the system.
The source allayed concerns that the budget was fraudulently altered, saying that such mistakes are not uncommon in the budgeting process and which the legislature has the power to correct when ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) appear before the various committees during their budget defence.
He said the minister assured the National Assembly leadership that the errors in the budget were unintentional and his ministry and Budget Office would continue to meet with the legislature to clarify and clean up areas of inconsistencies in the budget proposal.
The ministry official added that if it was the intention of the executive to submit a fraudulent budget, it would not have been posted online for the public to study and also make its input.
Citing several errors, ambiguities and rampant cases of budget padding, the National Assembly on Tuesday announced that it would no longer meet its target date for the passage of the budget on February 25.
It said it required more time to clear the budget proposal of all its ambiguities, errors and false figures smuggled into it, so that in the end, “a budget that is acceptable to all can proceed from the National Assembly”.
Following the meeting Tuesday night, the Minister of Budget and National Planning yesterday passionately appealed to the National Assembly to work assiduously and ensure the retention of the 30 per cent budgetary provision for capital projects.
Udoma made the appeal when he appeared before the joint sitting of the National Assembly to defend his ministry’s budget.
In justifying his appeal, the minister said: “We are in challenging times, we want to use the 2016 budget as a solution to our economic problems, especially the 30 per cent capital allocation component in the budget.
“We want to move from the past administration’s faulty traditional ways of managing our economy without development strides.”
On the fate of the 2016 budget in the face of falling oil prices, Udoma said: “We are working hard to expand fully the nation’s revenue base away from oil. Government has set achievable targets for all revenue-generating agencies; we must collect all revenues that are due and increase tax coverage areas.
“We have the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that is blocking loopholes and checking revenue leakages.”
Equally making a case for an increase in the capital budget, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, explained that “a reasonable and sizeable increase in capital allocation for improvement and provision of key infrastructure is required to reflate the economy and help the productive sector to grow our economy, especially small-scale enterprises”.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget, Planning and Economic Affairs, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, assured the minister and his team that his committee would do justice to the budget and would also ensure that every naira budgeted will be utilised for the benefit of all Nigerians.
However, despite moves to correct the anomalies in the Appropriation Bill, another instance of budget padding was brought to the fore yesterday, when the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, declared that the discovery of N398 million in his ministry’s budget for the purchase of computers was shocking to him.
Mohammed, who made the statement while defending his ministry’s budget before the Senate Committee on Information, had been asked to defend the allocations of N230 million and another N168 million for the purchase of computers for the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB).
Responding, he said: “No, that is not possible. That was definitely not what was proposed. This cannot be.”
An official of the ministry then said it was actually N5 million that was proposed for the items in the original budget of the NFVCB.
Reacting, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, said: “The difference between N5 million and N168 million is huge.”
In the same vein, Managing Director of NAN, Ima Niboro, expressed surprise at the N230 million allotted for the purchase of computers captured under capital votes in 2016 budget for NAN.
Earlier, a member of the committee, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, observed that little or no attention had been paid to the core functions of the ministry and its parastatals despite the war against the insurgency in the North-east.
He said: “I want to ask passionately that they (ministry and parastatals) re-submit their budget that will cater to the North-east because people are dying.
“This is not the question of spending more recklessly. I appeal that the budget be resubmitted, taking care of their needs in the North-east; it is very important.”
He recalled how the civil war radio stations were a very effective way of communicating with the public, suggesting that the same strategy should be employed in the war in the North-east.
“It would have made more sense for the information budget of the army to be given to the Ministry of Information to equip these stations manned by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as a source of communication,” he said.