L
LequteMan
Guest
A fresh budget crisis between the presidency and the National Assembly is on the horizon.
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to present the budget to lawmakers this week.
According to a principal officer in the Red Chamber 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.
He explained that the December 31-target cannot be realised due to the poor implementation of the 2017 budget. He regretted that government said they have released funds, but most of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) said they have not seen cash.
He blamed the executive for the problem associated with the 2017 budget implementation.
“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.”
“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.
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to present the budget to lawmakers this week.
According to a principal officer in the Red Chamber 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.
He explained that the December 31-target cannot be realised due to the poor implementation of the 2017 budget. He regretted that government said they have released funds, but most of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) said they have not seen cash.
He blamed the executive for the problem associated with the 2017 budget implementation.
“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.”
“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.
