The Federal Government has retracted an earlier claim by government that it has achieved 56 per cent implementation of the 2012 budget.

The retraction is contained in documents submitted to the Senate Committee on Appropriations by officials of the finance ministry during an interactive session called by the Senate on Tuesday. The officials were not allowed to make any presentation because of the absence of Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The documents clearly show that the 2012 budget implementation is 12.6 per cent. The documents show that a total of N324.56bn was cash backed, but only N184.84bn was released as at July 20.

According to the documents, the N184.84bn when calculated against the total capital budget of N1.519tn is 12.16 per cent of performance.

The ministry also clarified that the capital budget when subtracted from the SURE-P allocations, totaled N1.34tn and the final percentage implementation with N184.8bn utilisation was 13.79 per cent.

The distribution of the releases, as shown on the table presented to the Senate, indicated that the percentage implementation was calculated against the level of utilisation.

The table shows the Code of Conduct Bureau as having the highest level of utilisation with 98.93 per cent, closely followed by Federal Civil Service Commission and the Niger Delta Ministry with 98.93 per cent and 96.03 per cent respectively.

The Ministry of Communication Technology posted the lowest performance level of 16.45 per cent, having been able to utilize 136.5m out of a total cash backed N829.4m.

The Ministry of Justice also performed poorly with 16.93 per cent, as it was only able to spend N18.22m out of a total N107.65m within the period.

Meanwhile, the pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to fully implement the budget grew on Tuesday as the Senate knocked the Executive for poor implementation.

The Senate said the Federal Government had no reason not to effectively implement the budget given the fact that the National Assembly expeditiously approved what the government asked for without any major alteration.

The upper legislative chamber also took umbrage at the absence of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the interactive session. Okonjo-Iweala was specifically invited to the session to discuss the implementation of the budget.

Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremandu, who attended the session at the behest of Senate President, David Mark, warned that the session should not be treated as “a family affair.”

Ekweremadu said, “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 on whether it will be implemented or not, because over the years we have had this issue of non-implementation of the budget.

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

“One of the excuses we have 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 what this tinkering is.”

The appearance of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; and the Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, was rejected by the lawmakers who insisted that Okonjo-Iweala was central to the discussion at the session.

The Deputy Senate President expressed his dismay at the absence of the finance minister from such an important meeting scheduled to deal with the nation’s fiscal problems “on the excuse that she travelled to London for an event.”

He noted that the minister’s presence was needed for her to tell Nigerians the areas where the National Assembly had padded the budget so that chairmen of the relevant committee could respond.

He further said that it was not enough for the Executive or the Minister of Finance to accuse the National Assembly of tampering with the budget as an excuse for its poor implementation.

He said the accusation by the Executive was not correct.

While calling for adjournment, Ekweremadu said, “It will be absolutely impossible for us to do this dialogue in the absence of the coordinating minister of the economy.” He added that a new date should be scheduled while a summons should be issued for her to appear.

“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 SGF to tell Nigerians the degree of utilisation by MDAs. It’s not just enough that releases were made and then utilisation. We want to see whether those releases and utilisation are impacting on Nigerians,” Ekweremadu said.

He then stated that the meeting had been adjourned till Thursday, August 2, and urged the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Ahmed Maccido, to ensure Okonjo-Iweala’s compliance.

“The Minister for Finance is expected to be there no matter the circumstance. So we have to do everything possible to get her to be here on Thursday by 1pm,” he declared.

Earlier, Maccido said the nation had reached the third quarter of its fiscal year when the compilation of the 2013 budget ought to have started, but Nigerians are still talking about poor implementation of the 2012 budget.

He disagreed with the position of the executive that the budget had been implemented up to 56 per cent, noting that records available to the committee showed that only 21.5 per cent of the budget had been implemented.

The controversy over the implementation of the budget has been raging since July 19 when the House of Representatives asked Jonathan to ensure 100 per cent implementation by September 18 or face impeachment proceedings.

While the Reps said the government had only achieved 34 per cent implementation, Okonjo-Iweala had insisted that 56 per cent implementation had been achieved.

The finance minister had said on Monday that the government’s love for Nigerians had informed its slow release of funds for capital projects. She said that the budget was being implemented in a manner that would enhance the best interest of Nigerians.

The Reps however told the minister on Tuesday that she did not love the citizens more than they (lawmakers) did.

The House spokesman, Zakari Mohammed, asked Okonjo-Iweala to “stop sending wrong signals” that the House was wasteful by directing her to release capital votes to Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to execute projects.

Mohammed said, “Her (Okonjo-Iweala’s) utterances are not addressing the issue at stake. Funds have been appropriated for capital projects, we are saying release the money for work to go on.

“We are representatives of the people, elected by the people. She is a government appointee and cannot pretend to love Nigerians more than us.

“We are representing the interests of Nigerians; we do not know about her. If she is representing other interests, let her tell Nigerians.”

Mohammed stated that the House stood by its position that about 34 per cent of the budget had been implemented so far.

“The capital provision in the 2012 budget is N1.5tn. The minister, by her own words, told Nigerians that N324b of releases had been cash-backed. That is 34 per cent of N1.5tn. Her 56 per cent claim is referring to the N404bn they released out of the N1.5tn.

“They cash-backed N324bn; that is not 56 per cent of N1.5tn”, he stated.

http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-retracts-56-budget-implementation-claim-%E2%80%A2-okonjo-iwealas-absence-at-session-enrages-deputy-senate-president/

So apart from paying salaries what have they been doing?

Isn't this embarrasing and insulting to Nigerians?

This is August and budget performance is still less than 13%. What a completely useless government that thrives on deceit and propaganda!

Ngozi has spinned herself into a tight corner. Political vampires has smelled blood, they will now bare the fangs. Her survival is slim

i just dey laff, i know though nothing will happen because the useless senator will end up sharing the money......... cool cash

Thanks a lot

You guys need not jump the gun and start ur trash and biased analysis; Wait aunty Ngozi will soon be back to defend and lecture this legislooters that it wouldn't be business as usual and every money released must be vetted and accounted for and if they need free money, they should resign from the national assemby and go hustle it out in the real business world

God punish devil ohhhhhhh !
Dem want fool us . . .where are the GEJ supporters? . .make una hide una head in shame oh . . . .
'ifihearam a.k.a laptop 29' . . .a.k.a presidential bulldog oya start to bark . . .

God punish ya Mouth Ngozi for lying to Nigerians

Pukkah: Isn't this embarrasing and insulting to Nigerians?

i dey tell u ,its totally embarassing . . Can u imagine we r in august and i'm nt even sure if they have implemented 30% of the budget. . .
Is this d fresh air we were promised? . . Instead they were busy hosting african 1st ladies,wasting precious funds . . No wonder madam finance minister was trying to escape to World Bank. . .
God help Nigeria

warrior01: You guys need not jump the gun and start ur trash and biased analysis; Wait aunty Ngozi will soon be back to defend and lecture this legislooters that it wouldn't be business as usual and every money released must be vetted and accounted for and if they need free money, they should resign from the national assemby and go hustle it out in the real business world

and what will aunty ngozi do?
that u want every penny accounted for does not mean u grind development to a halt.
release the damn money and map out strategies to police proper utilisation.
govt aint spending money and we aint seeing it in our national purse either, so where's all the money going to?

And they are already preparing 2013 Budget for presentation. My question is where would they keep the left-over Fund which by conservative estimate will be running into Trillion Naira. Jonathan Wetin U dey do

GEJ and his team are the most useless and clueless set of people have ever seen.
Forget about the PhD or Harvard stuff

that's good talk from d lagatus side we hear,we ll never see it,ever.

I[b] wonder who is the best liar among these people: Abati, Dedeike and now Ngozi.
The house of "thieves" seems to be right afterall. That's a plus for them.[/b]

Dis Guy: So apart from paying salaries what have they been doing?

acting the subsidy movie

warrior01: You guys need not jump the gun and start ur trash and biased analysis; Wait aunty Ngozi will soon be back to defend and lecture this legislooters that it wouldn't be business as usual and every money released must be vetted and accounted for [/b]and if they need free money, they should resign from the national assemby and go hustle it out in the real business world

It's very convenient to lambast the legislators many of whom are also not clean. I am not even ready to defend them because they are all same of the same. But wait a minute, are the legislators asking a wrong question?

Besides, what has happened to the [b]N1.2trillion being the increase in the debt profile of the country within one year of the Jonathan administration?

CHAI!!!!!!! federal government de lie? thats new God help us

Firstly I do not think it is fair to accuse the lady of "lying" if an error has been made she has time to correct it apologize and we can move on.That is the way things are done.
Anyway I am not really a supporrter of hers as I believe the "WORLD BANK" hype obviates objectivity in evaluating her performance. If the level of implementation is actually as stated that responsibilty is beyond her and rests squarely with the President as he cannot or should not be unaware of this.

Sadly I feel GEJ lacks the knowledge or sophistication to manage Nigeria and does not know which questions to ask key ministers Like Nnaji,NOI or Diezani.
His recent appointment of Okupe underlines his priorities but no amount of detergent and scrubbing can change a pig to a goat.
The problem with GEJ is simple he lacks focus and is out of his depth.
The problems of Nigeria are beyond the implementation of a single budget,they require a Vision not the Mirage2020 but a real vision and a President who is prepared to work. I suspect GEJ spends too much time enjoying the luxuries of office and eating cassava bread

What is wrong with this madam self. Is it her father's money that she refuse to release it to d MDAs. Am sure her days are numbered. To hell with that her mouth she used to deceived us.

Nigeria is in a big mess.

Was this budget not planned b4 making it public. Does d money belong to her. She just messed up GEJ administration and he is there saying nothing a whole C in C of Nigeria.

Where is dedeike and his list of GEJ's "achievements"? Yeye people.

maclatunji: Where is dedeike and his list of GEJ's "achievements"? Yeye people.

Yah Allahu.

Is too early NLDers ok, don't jump into conclusion till we hear from aunty Ngoos. But I still believe God has remembered Nigeria. Time shall tell.

Dis Guy: So apart from paying salaries what have they been doing?

They are creating committee upon committee nau
If we say the man is clueless, his useless voltrons will jump out & start talking trash.

warrior01: You guys need not jump the gun and start ur trash and biased analysis; Wait aunty Ngozi will soon be back to defend and lecture this legislooters that it wouldn't be business as usual and every money released must be vetted and accounted for and if they need free money, they should resign from the national assemby and go hustle it out in the real business world

I hope this will be the last time you post with such stupidity on this forum. So, you want the process of budget implementation to take all the time whilst the people that are to benefit from it through project implementation continue to die and those that are alive wallow in poverty.

I have seen a lot of stupidity based posts on Nairaland but this one has to take the lead because it seeks to reduce the whole country to a joke. So, because there are corrupt elements in the National Assembly, the budget should not be implemented? What have you been consuming?

Hmmm... I'm really beginning to ask myself whether Aunty Ngozi really has a firm grasp on this job of hers. First she couldn't tell us exactly how much was spent as "subsidy" on petroleum last year; she suddenly made a curious bid for the World Bank presidency; now this.

Anyway, I'll wait for her to respond before making up my mind.

Pukkah: Isn't this embarrasing and insulting to Nigerians?

You Need To Read These! Why He Hasn't Proposed

After Aborting 3 Times For Him, He's Set To Marry Another Lady This Month.

16 Regular Mistakes Singles Make in Relationships

25 Warning Signs of a Possible Break up in Your Relationship

president jonathan,i didn't take u seriously when you told us you had no shoes,is now i belief you were saying the truth,i hope u have budgeted enough money to buy shoes for yourself.

OMG..what a drama!! If this topic is anything to go by, I think Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is officially more confused and clueless than her boss GEJ.
So this madam (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) personally holds a press conference (I watched it on NTA), telling the world that 56% of the 2012 budget has been implemented, only for the Fed. Govt. to retract the claims a few days later, and suprisingly, the same Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was absent.
Very funny, isn't it??
Oh Fresh Air, what else do you have for us??