doctokwus: Its clearly an irredeemable regime,clearly manifest in an alarming cluelessness,monumental corruption& a total lack of any sense of morality frm GEJ& Dame P,whc has bn well copied by every notable person associated wt d govt.Lies aplentiful& nobody gives "a damn".It peaked wt d fuel subsidy lies,den just wen discerning minds thought dat was d height of govt deceit,anoda lie of a 56% budget implementation was made,but now,evn ardent PDP members of d NASS av acknowledged implementation is @best 21%.It maybe true dat d unravelling of all dese govt deceit by d NASS may av a selfish basis,but dey are revelations dat can only benefit d nigerian nation& lead us to d long road of realising dat some pple,particularly wt antecedent histories of incompetence,corruption,immorality,lacking in proper knowledge base,shd never be allowed to step anywhere near d corridors of power.

doctokwus: Its clearly an irredeemable regime,clearly manifest in an alarming cluelessness,monumental corruption& a total lack of any sense of morality frm GEJ& Dame P,whc has bn well copied by every notable person associated wt d govt.Lies aplentiful& nobody gives "a damn".It peaked wt d fuel subsidy lies,den just wen discerning minds thought dat was d height of govt deceit,anoda lie of a 56% budget implementation was made,but now,evn ardent PDP members of d NASS av acknowledged implementation is @best 21%.It maybe true dat d unravelling of all dese govt deceit by d NASS may av a selfish basis,but dey are revelations dat can only benefit d nigerian nation& lead us to d long road of realising dat some pple,particularly wt antecedent histories of incompetence,corruption,immorality,lacking in proper knowledge base,shd never be allowed to step anywhere near d corridors of power.

JomoGbomo2: This GEJ administration I justt grossly incompetent....and whoever hasn't seen it is just as much blind!. It lacked the capacity and moral purpose to lead this country...imagine the blatant lies.

And as for Ngozi O I. Please let's not take her enviable qualification as readiness to serve, she is just as morally bankrupt as the rest of the administration.
I don't know for how long this will take but I hope the reps will see this budget malady through to its end and if necessary impeach the Clown supposedly governing this country.

Ovularia:
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala had on Monday claimed that the 2012 capital budget implementation as at June 20, was 56 per cent. However, a document on budget performance submitted to the Senate committee on Finance by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation showed that a total sum of N401, 648, 460, 791 has been so far released with N324, 556, 851, 948 of that amount being cash backed.

According to the document, out of this, only N184, 848, 092, 533 has been utilized as at 20th July 2012, just as capital allocation for 2012 budget stood at N1, 519, 986, 106, 691 and only 21.35 per cent of the total allocation has been cash backed. And the percentage amount utilized from the releases so far stood at 12.16% as at July 20th.

It’s not 56% performance

“The performance of 56.95 per cent as indicated by the office of the accountant general is the percentage of amount utilized (184 billion) of the amount cash backed (342 billion) as at 20th July, 2012 and not of the entire capital budget. The actual utilization of N184 billion against the total capital of N1.5 trillion is 12.16 percent,” the document read.

Demdem: Ngozi's lies is getting more ridiculous by the day. She started this attitude during the subsidy debacle. The house of "thieves" seems to be right afterall.

jmaine:


Am sure folks here are aware that Iweala categorically said that her 56% budget implementation rating was based on released funds and not the entire budget . . . .

While the senate decided to marshall their arguement based on the entire budget

As far as am concerned[b] Both parties are correct[/b], but the Senate erred by saying Iweala declaration of 56% is wrong cos the yard stick she deplored to arrive at her conclusion was concise and very clear to all who will be truthful and without mischief for once . . .

Elueme: At the end , we ll know who the liars are? She based her calculation of 56% on released funds..not the entire budget as NASS claimed

Elueme: At the end , we ll know who the liars are? She based her calculation of 56% on released funds..not the entire budget as NASS claimed

jmaine:


Am sure folks here are aware that Iweala categorically said that her 56% budget implementation rating was based on released funds and not the entire budget . . . .

While the senate decided to marshall their arguement based on the entire budget

As far as am concerned[b] Both parties are correct[/b], but the Senate erred by saying Iweala declaration of 56% is wrong cos the yard stick she deplored to arrive at her conclusion was concise and very clear to all who will be truthful and without mischief for once . . .

Pukkah:

How can both parties saying different things be right? Is implementation or utilization not different from release?

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) today (Wednesday July 25, 2012), confirmed that the implementation of the 2012 budget has reached 56% from 39% as at the end of May.

Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the council meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, the minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala said that the 56% represents 324 billion naira of the 404 billion so far released.

Demdem:

What ffucking released funds. So both the sinators and the house of looters never knew this and they are angry with her. Abegi leave tori, noi. Is a bleeping liar. She lied also On several TV that nigerians are consuming subsidy money too much but recent developments has shown that the bulk of these money go to their cohorts.

Zutchy: Their cohorts,is it the ones they are prosecuting or another ones again.

yes, very few of those thieves are presently being prosecuted with the promise of more to come. i hope this happens. however, until i see these thieves relinquishing all what they stole from us and spending some time in jail, am not moved neither am i convinced. Bankole is also being prosecuted and yet still living large with his loot, Ndume the boko sponsor is another story. Charging them to court is just the first step and i wont be too excited about that. I wonder why stella, the aviation minister whose company also is involved in the subsidy scam is still in Govt

these NASS members are simply grandstanding,NOI is refusing to release funds for it to be embezzled like before,all the funds for capital projects that have been released since what happened to it,since the projects they were designated for are still littered all over the place with nothing to show for the monies that have all dissapeared,

Excuses like this from Ngozi makes her much more stuppid. The budget is a law and it must be obeyed no matter what. saying vultures are on ground to eat up released funds as soon as its released is like indicting this same govt. by the way, are they not the ones in power. We have series of project monitoring teams in ministries, series of special advisers on project monitoring etc what are these check and balances within the executive doing in making sure awarded projects are done to specification? at least that is what they are being paid to do. What Ngozi is basically doing is giving excuses on why the LAW of the land (the budget) cant be obeyed and such people are meant to be in Jail. Ngozi should released funds as expected and tasks all government agencies to put it to work with the cooperation of security agents in making sure that these vultures dont have their way


go and check and you will see that a lot of those contracts were awarded to cronies and stooges of these NASS men.but if they want her to come she will go and answer them and clear their doubt

i dont need to check at all because there is nothing wrong if a relative of any of these NASS is also a government contractor. My only problem is if as a government contractor u dont do what is expected of you especially in executing projects to specification. As long as u do the work well am ok with u whether u are NASS member relative or not. During the PTF days, anytime Buhari goes on inspection of projects, its on record that he goes there with enough security men that will make sure contractors that dont do their work as expected would be arrested on the spot and sent to jail. This put most of them on their toes and made them do qualitative work that we all can still see till date.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala had on Monday claimed that the 2012 capital budget implementation as at June 20, was 56 per cent. However, a document on budget performance submitted to the Senate committee on Finance by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation showed that a total sum of N401, 648, 460, 791 has been so far released with N324, 556, 851, 948 of that amount being cash backed.

According to the document, out of this, only N184, 848, 092, 533 has been utilized as at 20th July 2012, just as capital allocation for 2012 budget stood at N1, 519, 986, 106, 691 and only 21.35 per cent of the total allocation has been cash backed. And the percentage amount utilized from the releases so far stood at 12.16% as at July 20th.

It’s not 56% performance

“The performance of 56.95 per cent as indicated by the office of the accountant general is the percentage of amount utilized (184 billion) of the amount cash backed (342 billion) as at 20th July, 2012 and not of the entire capital budget. The actual utilization of N184 billion against the total capital of N1.5 trillion is 12.16 percent,” the document read.

”One of the excuses we’ve read from the pages of newspapers for non performance of the budget is what they considered as the tinkering of the budget by the National Assembly. And so what we had wanted to do today is to hear from the executive where the tinkering is.

“Let us hear and let the people of Nigeria hear what the National Assembly did to the budget that made it impossible for it to be implemented so that our committee chairmen here would have the opportunity of responding.
“So it is not enough for the Executive or the Minister of Finance to accuse the National Assembly of tampering with the budget that made it impossible for it to be implemented and then National Assembly is saying no, it is not so.

[size=14pt]"So we decided a situation where the press will be the arbiter and then they will listen to us and the executive and then know where it went wrong if it did. And if there are areas that the National Assembly should be blamed and the Nigerian public should hear and if they have response from the National Assembly, our appropriate committees should also respond.

“Now, the stage is set but the minister is not here and we are worried about it. So, it will be absolutely impossible for us to do this dialogue with the absence of the coordinating minister of the economy.
[/size]

lanre_front: Whether people believe it or not, Ngozi Iweala is an agent of the West. Her policies serves the interest of the imperialist West more than the interest of Nigeria.

I've always been of the opinion that she should never have been appointed as Minister of Finance. The American or British government would never appoint as its Minister of Finance an citizen who has lived and done business since his or her childhood in a country like Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Nigeria, Kenya etc for about upwards of twenty years and even schooled there and works and became highly placed in their agencies. They will believe the person may have established life long lasting connections, interests and loyalties which will be at variance with the interest of their own nations.

It is only in a country like Nigeria where our leaders have that can't see the obvious that this happens. NCSA Iweala has been in the West since her childhood. She has worked in world-brett on institutions ever since she started working. Even when she finishes her stint with us, she's going back there. She is their darling.

Even with all this, the western interests she strives so hard to satisfy does not trust her enough to allow her to become the President of the World Bank. They cannot guarantee she will best serve their interest.

Then why should Nigeria's consideration be any different.

Alas we have a Present that has even publicly declared in Presidential Media Chat that he the President elected by the people is not the one running the economy but the appointed Minister of finance.

I really don't understand what is these pre-occupation of mysticism with Iweala. There are people in this country that can do better than her and their loyalty is 100% for Nigeria and not 1estern interest. I'm not talking about recycled old cargoes. We have economist like Pat Utomi, Boyo (can't remember his full name but he has spoken so many times of Channels news)

But Jonathan a PHD holder is so intimidated by her CV he just handed the whole country to her.

Budget Implementation: Okonjo-Iweala shuns Senate, leaves for London to represent Jonathan in a forum
Posted about 4 hours ago | 0 comment


Indications have emerged that the Senators may have also develop a cold war with the executive arms of government over the poor implementation of the 2012 budget.

The Senate was angry yesterday over the failure of the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi-Iweala to show up at a session on the implementation at the floor of the National Assembly.

“Daily Post” learnt that the Minister had left the country for London where she would be representing President Goodluck Jonathan at an investment forum.

Although, at yesterday’s session, some senators ordered for the immediate arrest of the minister on her absense. she had been re-summoned to appear at the senate on (Thursday) tomorrow.

The aggrieved senators were said to have demanded for her arrest following her refusal to appear at the floor of the house last week Thursday, but prefer to attend a SURE-programme in Asaba, Delta State.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who chaired yesterday’s aborted interactive session on the implementation of the Appropriation Act 2012, spoke of the Senate’s worry about the “poor implementation” of the budget.

Appropriation Committee chair Senator Ahmed Maccido, who flagged off the short meeting, noted that the session was to “clear doubts and put records straight as well as to know what might have constituted a hindrance to the implementation of the 2012 budget and how it should be corrected”.

Maccido said that the Senate was at a loss on the level of performance of the 2012 Appropriation Act and desired to know what the problem was.

He said that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala told Nigerians that the 2012 budget performance is 56 per cent but that records indicated a performance level of 21.56 per cent.

Ekweremadu underscored the displeasure of the Senate over the minister’s absence at the meeting.

For the Deputy Senate President, nothing could have been more important to the Minister than coming to explain to Nigerians how far the budget has fared.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, he said, should have appreciated the fact that she was invited not for a family affair but for a serious business.

He noted that the minister had failed twice to honour Senate’s invitation on budget implementation.

Ekweremadu mandated the joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance to ensure that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala appeared before it tomorrow even if it meant summoning her.

He said: “We are here to have a public hearing on the performance of the 2012 budget.

“This is supposed to include the degree of releases to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and the degree of utilisation by MDAs.

“It is not a family meeting; it is a very serious business. We had expected the Coordinating Minister and Minister of Finance to be here today because she is central to all that we are going to discuss today.

“As our Chairman on Appropriation mentioned; this matter was supposed to have been discussed last week Thursday. The minister was absent and we learnt she went to Asaba to declare open the SURE- programme.

“We consider our meeting with her on the issue that has to do with budget implementation to be more important than any other assignment.

“Today, we have also been told she has gone to London to represent the President at an investment forum of which we know there are other ministers and government officials that could have gone and done that to enable her to be here with us this afternoon.

“So it is regrettable that she is not here. I recall that when the 2012 budget was presented to us as a draft Bill, we in the National Assembly decided that we are going to do everything possible to send it back to the Executive the way it came so that there will be no argument of whether it will be implemented or not.

[b]“Over the years, we’ve had this issue of non-implementation of the budget and the reason they usually give revolves around the area of National Assembly input.

“So, we decided we are going to make minimal input – if anything at all. On the basis of this, we returned the budget basically the way it came.

“Even when we criticised some areas of which some adjustments needed to be made, we had to bend over at the risk of being accused of tampering with the budget.

“We had to do that to ensure that they received the budget the way and manner they wanted so that implementation will be easier. Unfortunately, the level of implementation has been anything less than commendable and that is why we are worried.

“As we read from the papers what they have not implemented is what they considered the tinkering by the National Assembly. What we had wanted to do today is to hear from the Executive what those tinkering are. Let the people of Nigeria hear exactly what the National Assembly did to the budget that made it impossible for it to be implemented.

“It is not enough for the Executive or the Ministry of Finance to accuse the National Assembly of tampering the budget that made it impossible to be implemented and then the National Assembly is saying, no we did not do anything.

“We decided on a situation where the press will be the arbiter and then they will listen to us and listen to the Executive to know if we did anything.
“If there are such areas the Nigerian public will hear. And if they ask for response from the National Assembly our appropriate committees will also respond.

“Now the stage is set but the Minister is not here and we are worried about it. It is absolutely impossible for us to continue this dialogue in the absence of the Minister.[/b]

“I have discussed with my colleagues and what we are going to do is to allow our committee on Appropriation to look for an appropriate date, possibly by Thursday, and ensure that the Minister comes, even if it means summoning her to ensure that she appears before the committee to tell Nigerians the degree of releases and, of course, for the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to tell Nigerians the degree of utilisation.

“It is not just enough that releases were made but we want to see the releases and then utilisation. We want to see a situation where those releases and utilization are impacting on the lives of Nigerians. We want to see roads being worked on; we want to see the water projects going on. We want to see electricity projects going on.

“We appropriated about N900billion for the security situation in the country. We want to see whether these monies have been released and we want to see the desired impact of the utilisation in Kano , in Sokoto, in Kaduna , in Yobe and all the northern parts of Nigeria .

“That is exactly what we thought this public hearing will afford us all today. But now we are disappointed that it is not going to take place.

“I have the mandate of my colleagues to adjourn this public hearing to enable the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister to show up.

“And as I said, the chairman of the committee should take necessary steps, including, if possible, summoning the minister to show up before the Senate Committee on Appropriation and other relevant committees by Thursday this week.”

jmaine: It's actually sad seeing folks trying to twist Iweala true assertion's . . .

i concisely made myself clear about the position of the senate and Ngozi, citing why both of them are correct in the context of the parameters used in their deductions

A lil calculation will help clarify all issue's i raised . . .no need throwing jabs . .. .

Elueme: Should we continue in the culture of impunity by MDAs , political contractors and stakeholders so that peace could reign in the polity? No.. We Nigerians are the main stimulating factors enhancing corruption in this nation because of the level of ignorant we operate at.. In the past trillions are being released as budgettedbutdo you see any justifiable evidence? The system of corruption has it that the monies were being shared after documentation... The contrary is what Ngozi O I is fighting why these attacks which is not a surprise to me because corruption fights back at it's adversaries.. She's putting in place strict monitoring of funds release and performance and your previous performance qualifies you for more releases.. This will put checks to false claims and save the country of so much money.. The unspent monies go back to govt.. Is this too hard for us to understand... The house of representatives are betraying sentiments cos their entitlements and allowances as well as their excesses were and are being curtailed.. Now the senate has started barking like bulldogs to chicken the executive to their biddings and Nigerians are here on nairaland blind to reasoning and talking all the cock and bull stories... If you are not brave for what is right now you ll never be again..