Plans by the National Assembly to deliver a timely budget and particularly return the country to a January-December budget cycle is possibly being threatened by delays by the lawmakers to enact the much-required legislation to drive that process.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan had, two weeks ago, stated that there was urgent need for NASS to put in place a law that would reform the budget and revert it to the January-December cycle.
According to Lawan, if the budget cycle is reverted, all delays in budget passage would be put off. Also, he said it will eradicate all challenges that are encountered during budget defense.
“We can reform our budget cycle if there is a law on timeliness for budget passing. We have resolved to be reform minded in the ninth National Assembly and improving the budget cycle is one area of focus,” he stated.
Lawan further insisted that ensuring the timeliness of budget passage will foster leadership focus and enhance governance, as well as service delivery.
Specifically, Lawan had given example of countries like the United States of America, Canada, Austria, Brazil, France and India who have more definite budget cycles through legislation.
There have been several efforts in the past by the legislature to make a law to eradicate budget delays and set time limit for budget passage.
The 8th National Assembly, chaired by Senate President Bukola Saraki had proposed to enact a legislation to end budget delays but it was never realised. The proposal never came to fruition.
At the moment, the 9th National Assembly has approved the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 2020 Appropriation Bill.
The NASS increased the total expenditure of the Federal Government in the 2020 Budget from N10.002 trillion to N10,729.4 trillion.
Meanwhile, a law is expected to constitutionally put a permanent end to delays on passage of the budget by setting a time frame to limit all budget processes.
However, it seems NASS is not readily disposed to actualising the legislative agenda as, since it announced the proposal, weeks after, nothing practically has commenced on it.
The hope of the people appears dashed because of the grave consequences budget delays have on the economy.
BDSUNDAY recalls that the budget for 2000 fiscal year, which was presented in December 1999, was not signed into law until May 6th, 2000.
In the year 2008, the budget was passed in April 15, 2008, and in 2009, it was signed on March 10 while in 2010, the budget was passed on April 22.
Also, in the year 2011, the budget was signed into law by May 27; in 2012, the appropriation bill was passed on April 13. For 2013, it was signed on February 26 while in 2014, it was assented on May 24 and in the year 2015, it was May 19; and in 2016, the budget was passed into law on May, as well as by April in 2018 while in the year 2019, the budget was signed on May 27th, respectively.
In Nigeria, delay in passage of the budget has become an annual recurrence. Some African countries that look up to Nigeria have even eradicated this ugly trend.
For instance in Ghana, the budget for the 2019 fiscal year was approved in November 2018. In Ethiopia, the budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal years was approved few days before the commencement of the fiscal year in July 2018 while in Egypt, the budget for their 2018-2019 fiscal years was approved about a month to the commencement of the fiscal year.
By budget process, according to information available from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, “In Nigeria the fiscal year begins on January 1st and ends December 31st.”
However, the Nigerian law has no time limit specified for the National Assembly to consider and okay the budget submitted before it by the President.
The CBN explained the budget process thus: “This process starts in June with the issuance of a Call Circular from the FMOF to MDAs to submit their expenditure proposals, which are set within the spending limits. A draft Bill is prepared by October by the FMOF and sent to the NASS through the Presidency.
“Technically, before the legislature’s December recess, the Bill could be passed with any agreed amendments. The President could then be able to authorise the Bill to become law in January. A clause also allows the President to spend from the previous year’s budget, which has to be within the time limit of six months, although there has to be an awaiting appropriation act for the current fiscal year.”
Of course, the delay in the passage of the budget is somewhat a yearly ritual and only time shall tell when it will be corrected.
But before any budget is passed by the National Assembly, the defence processes are seriously delayed because MDAs often fail to tender proper information while interfacing with NASS committees. Sometimes, Heads of government agencies blatantly refuse to appear for the defense.
After the budget is finally approved by NASS, the bill is required to be signed by the President before it becomes law.
Again, what elongates the delay is that the President will insist on a clause by clause examination and comparison of the appropriation bill passed by the legislature, with the proposal submitted to the legislature by the executive before assenting to it.
All these processes can be quickened if a law permitting time limit is set for both the legislature, executive and by extension the MDAs. It is empirical in other countries around the world.
For example, the Chilean constitution mandates that the executive provide the legislature its budget 60 days before the end of the fiscal year. This time- frame can be comparable with a number of countries in the world.
By Chilean legislation, “if the legislature does not approve the budget within 60 days, it automatically becomes law in its entirety, thus under-cutting the leverage of the parliament.”
As it is, weeks after the 9th National Assembly announced that it would enact a bill to eradicate budget delays, nothing meaningfully has been achieved.
The Senate spokesman, Senator Adedayo Adedeye, in an interview, explained that the National Assembly was yet to present the bill. He said the pronouncement by NASS was a proposal and that it will be considered very soon.
SOLOMON AYADO, Abuja
