A week after the Senate embarked on recess to allow standing committees to hold 2018 budget defence sessions for federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the upper legislative chamber has commenced the session, albeit on a slow speed.
The speed with which the budget sessions has taken off raises concerns around whether the law makers will be able to conclude the appropriation process and pass the bill by the end of the year as pleaded by President Buhari last month.
The Senate had suspended plenary on December 5, 2017 to enable its standing committees – the sub-committees to the Appropriations Committee, to hold budget defence with MDAs. The lawmakers anticipate that the committee would conclude the defence within the two weeks before plenary resumes.
Senate President Bukola Saraki had urged the committees to expedite action on the process and equally asked the Appropriations Committee to submit its report upon resumption by December 19.
However, less than a week to resumption, budget defence has taken off at the Senate, but yet to commence at the House of Representatives.
Speaking with BusinessDay, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, decried persistent delays in Nigeria’s budgeting process, saying there was need for the engagement of stakeholders in budget preparation and approval processes.
He called for early submission of the budget in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act as well as political will between the Legislature and the Executive in passing the budget proposal on time.
He said: “The Federal Government can stop the delayed passage of the budget and ensure that it is ready for implementation by the first day of January in each year by guaranteeing that budget preparation starts early so that it can be sent to the legislature not later than September every year.
“With four clear months to the end of the year, the National Assembly will have sufficient time to approve the budget and get it ready for presidential assent in due time. This is not rocket science; it is doable if the political will is there on the executive and legislative sides.”
MDAs that have so far defended their 2018 budgets include the Ministry of Information and Culture while budget defence for the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and National Agency for Control of Aids (NACA) earlier scheduled for this week were postponed.
A member of the Appropriations Committee who spoke on condition of anonymity said it is impossible for the sub-committees to conclude budget defence sessions with over 260 MDAs before the December 19 resumption date except the legislative body wants to carry out a haphazard job.
In the House of Representatives, most standing committees have not made public their itineraries, a week after the lower legislative chamber embarked on two-week recess to enable them proceed on oversight visits to assess various projects executed by the MDAs in 2017.
As of Tuesday, December 12, only the House Committee on Sports as well as Aids, Loans and Debt Management have so far engaged with the Heads of the respective MDAs they have oversight over.
None of the standing committees has started budget defence in the House, as oversight visits are yet to be concluded.
Going by the resolution passed by the two legislative chambers, the National Assembly is expected to reconvene on Tuesday, 19th December, 2017.
According to the legislative calendar, the National Assembly is to embark on Christmas recess on Thursday, 21st December, 2019.
By implication, the likely passage of the N8.612 trillion 2018 budget estimates in 2017 is unrealistic.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari had in his budget presentation to a joint session of the National Assembly last month, called for expeditious passage of the budget to return to a more predictable January to December budget cycle, the development in both chambers implies that the January to December budget timeline is no longer feasible.
Analysts say a third consecutive late passage of the budget by the National Assembly may alter Federal Government’s medium-term (2017 – 2020) Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
BusinessDay findings revealed that the underlining factor behind the lawmakers’ grouse against the Executive is the non-release of zonal intervention fund, otherwise known as constituency projects worth N100 billion in the 2017 Appropriation Act. The same fate was suffered by the 2016 budget, with strong indications that this year’s constituency projects will be rolled over to 2018.
Confirming this, a South-South senator who did not want his name in print, accused the Executive of selective implementation of the 2017 budget, describing it as an impeachable offence.
“The non-release of the N100 billion constituency projects earmarked in the 2017 Appropriation Act is a ploy by the Executive to spite us against our constituents and ensure that we don’t get return tickets in the next general election.
“They fail to understand that it is not the duty of the Legislature to implement laws”.
Nigeria has been experiencing delays in its budget process since the return to democratic rule in 1999, owing to power tussle between the Executive and the Legislature.
For instance, the 2011 budget was passed on March 25, 2011, while that of the following year was passed on March 14, 2012. For the 2013 budget, it was passed by the lawmakers on December 20, 2012 and signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2013. Also, the 2014, 2015 and 2016 budgets were also signed in the month of May of the respective years. Similarly, the 2017 budget was passed by the National Assembly in May and signed into law by then acting President Yemi Osinbajo in June 2017.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA & OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
