The Director-General, Budget Office of the
Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu, on Tuesday described the increase in the
initial 2011 budget passed by the National Assembly as being mostly
constituted by constituency projects which the lawmakers included in the
budget to score political points.
Okogu said this in his presentation entitled, ‘Performance-based budgeting in the public sector’, at the 9th Nigeria Development Forum, organised by the African Centre for Resource Studies in Lagos.
The D-G said, “What is the difference in the budget we presented and the one they initially passed? A lot of the projects that were added were their own constituency projects.
“It is not that it is bad but how do you expect the Federal Government to go and put borehole in your village. That’s not the responsibility of the Federal Government. The state and the local governments have that.
“Though, politically it is good, you can show that in your village. But you have to think about it beyond yourself.”
He noted that before the 2011 Appropriation Act was finally amended, the National Assembly had passed a budget which required a domestic borrowing of N1.33tr instead of N865.24bn proposed by the by the Federal Government.
Okogu said, “We proposed a budget of a certain amount; the revenue was N3.348tr expected. What the National Assembly passed even with this was N4.97tr having a deficit of N1.6trn and asking us to go and borrow N1.33tr to plug the difference. We said at that time that the budget was not implementable.
“So we did an amendment proposal under which we said, let the total spending be N4.485tr.”
Okogu explained that the amended budget resulted in a deficit of N1.136tr and domestic borrowing of N852.03bn while the one initially passed by the National Assembly resulted in a deficit of N1.624tr and required N1.33trn domestic borrowing.
He said he was compelled to make “clarifications on the problems and issues on the 2011 budget” having been inundated with questions over the 2011 budget.
The Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Alhaji Mohammadu Ari-Gwaska, who also chaired the occasion, in his response, said his commission was ready to assist the Budget Office of the Federation to carry out the monitoring of budget implementations at all levels of governments.
Okogu, who had earlier indicated that he made contributions to the drafting of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, added that his office introduced the performance-based budget to the nation’s budgeting strategy in 2008.
By Ade Adesomoju Courtesy Of: Punch
Okogu said this in his presentation entitled, ‘Performance-based budgeting in the public sector’, at the 9th Nigeria Development Forum, organised by the African Centre for Resource Studies in Lagos.
The D-G said, “What is the difference in the budget we presented and the one they initially passed? A lot of the projects that were added were their own constituency projects.
“It is not that it is bad but how do you expect the Federal Government to go and put borehole in your village. That’s not the responsibility of the Federal Government. The state and the local governments have that.
“Though, politically it is good, you can show that in your village. But you have to think about it beyond yourself.”
He noted that before the 2011 Appropriation Act was finally amended, the National Assembly had passed a budget which required a domestic borrowing of N1.33tr instead of N865.24bn proposed by the by the Federal Government.
Okogu said, “We proposed a budget of a certain amount; the revenue was N3.348tr expected. What the National Assembly passed even with this was N4.97tr having a deficit of N1.6trn and asking us to go and borrow N1.33tr to plug the difference. We said at that time that the budget was not implementable.
“So we did an amendment proposal under which we said, let the total spending be N4.485tr.”
Okogu explained that the amended budget resulted in a deficit of N1.136tr and domestic borrowing of N852.03bn while the one initially passed by the National Assembly resulted in a deficit of N1.624tr and required N1.33trn domestic borrowing.
He said he was compelled to make “clarifications on the problems and issues on the 2011 budget” having been inundated with questions over the 2011 budget.
The Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Alhaji Mohammadu Ari-Gwaska, who also chaired the occasion, in his response, said his commission was ready to assist the Budget Office of the Federation to carry out the monitoring of budget implementations at all levels of governments.
Okogu, who had earlier indicated that he made contributions to the drafting of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, added that his office introduced the performance-based budget to the nation’s budgeting strategy in 2008.
By Ade Adesomoju Courtesy Of: Punch
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