[size=13pt]2011 Budget Implementation - FG Scores MDAs Low[/size]


Federal Government has rated its ministries and agencies low in their implementation of the 2011 capital budget in the first six months of the year.

In a report titled 'Combined First and Second Quarter Budget Implementation Report', the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu said "while recurrent expenditure has been on target, the average rate of MDAs' capital budget implementation has been low in the first half of the year."

He said implementation of the budget in the first half of 2011 has been very challenging.

"On the revenue side, government has been faced with lower than projected net revenues particularly as oil receipts were provisionally based on lower benchmark assumptions of the 2010 fiscal year following the late passage of the 2011 Budget," he said.

The Report said that poor project management practices by MDAs have been identified as the prime reason for the low budget performance.

He said government has been developing policies aimed at instilling global best practices in project management in our MDAs.

The Report said that recent reviews of MDAs' capital projects' implementation for 2011 reveals lapses in the implementation of capital projects/programmes.

Only N128.72 billion (or 65.44%) of the total amount cash-backed had been utilized by MDAs as at June 30.

As at 30th June 2011 an aggregate of N227.81 billion was released through first quarter Development Capital Warrant of N111.0 billion, first quarter Augmentation Warrant of N100 billion and Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIEs) of N19.69 billion for the implementation of MDAs' capital projects/programmes as contained in the 2011 Appropriation Act.

Of this amount, a total of N196.69 billion (or 86.34%) of the total releases was cash-backed.

The utilization report also shows that 28 MDAs (or 51.85%) which includes OSGF, Youth Development, Agriculture, Education, Finance, Health, Information & Communication, Science & Technology, Transport and Environment had their utilization rate below 50 percent.

On the other hand 11 MDAs (or 20.37%) were yet to utilise any of their funds, the report said.

Among them are: Women Affairs, Justice, Petroleum, Revenue Mobilization ICRC and Special Duties.

A review of the fifty-four (54) MDAs reported upon by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) shows a varied level of utilization rates.

Twenty-one (or 38.89%) of the MDAs including: Works, Housing, Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Industry, Defence, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Niger-Delta and Interior, each had their utilization rate above the overall average utilization rate of 65.44 percent.

Fifteen out of these (or 27.78% of the MDAs) including ICPC, Office of the Auditor General, Defence, FCTA, Interior, Works, Housing, Niger-Delta and FCSC had utilization rates of over 80 percent of their respective cash-backed releases.

"In order to address some of these challenges, the Government is in the process of engaging an experienced global project management firm to guide the institutionalisation of best practices in capital programme and project portfolio management in our MDAs," the report said.

The report on the third quarter implementation is yet to be released.

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday presented the 2012 budget estimate of N4.749 trillion to the combined session of the National Assembly.

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