The House of Representatives said
on Sunday that the Federal
Government’s yearly expenditure
was “over N20tn,” contrary to the
N4.6tn (2014) or N4.3tn (2015)
disclosed to Nigerians as the
country’s annual public budget.
The president had on the 23rd of
February 2015, made the remarks
putting the Annual budget at
between N4.3 trillion and N4.9
trillion yearly. This he did while
defending the allegation by the
Former CBN Governor, Charles
Soludo that N30 trillion had either
been mismanaged or missing.
Its Public Accounts Committee,
which made the disclosure in
Abuja, noted that, an ongoing
examination of the finances of
government and its 601 agencies
showed that the N4.3tn given as the
total spending budget for this year
was a “far cry” from the reality.
The Chairman of the committee,
Mr. Adeola Solomon-Olamilekan,
who spoke on the issue, explained
that, unknown to Nigerians, the
N4.3tn, for example, did not include
the expenditure of many “statutory
and extra-ministerial departments”
of government.
He added that his committee found
out that these other agencies not
captured in the regular budget,
generated and spent their money
as it pleased them without seeking
the approval of the National
Assembly.
The lawmaker put the budget of
these other bodies at over N16tn.
Solomon-Olamilekan explained
further, “The N4.9tn, N4.6tn or
N4.3tn, as the case may be, is the
budget that the whole Nigerians are
listening to but in the true sense of
it, the budget of other statutory and
extra-ministerial departments put
together is about N16tn.
“So, the total overall budget year in
year out is over N20tn, which the
executive arm operates, but nobody
is asking questions as to the
implementation of all these
budgets.
“Nobody is bringing information on
the implementation of all these
budgets; and this is one area
Nigerians need to start asking
questions in order to move this
country forward.”
Solomon-Olamilekan stated that
though the Fiscal Responsibility Act,
2007, made adequate provisions on
how these bodies should be held
accountable, the law was observed
in breach.
He cited the “stifling” of the Office
of the Auditor-General of the
Federation as one of the ways to
shield government agencies from
opening their books to scrutiny.
Solomon-Olamilekan said this was
done by starving the office of funds
“over the years” to a point where it
no longer had the financial power
to effectively audit the accounts of
the implementation agencies of
government and its extra-
ministerial departments.
For instance, he revealed how the
government cut the capital budget
of the AGF’ office from N1.9bn to a
“meagre” N100m in 2015.
The lawmaker said his committee
was at a loss on how the AGF’s
office would audit the accounts of
601 agencies with N100m and the
country’s 144 foreign missions.
The PAC chairman added, “How can
we imagine that the capital budget
of the office of AGF for the year
2015 was reduced from N1.9bn to
N100?
“Can you also imagine an office of
the AGF that has 144 foreign
missions to audit and as we speak,
between 1999 to date, that office
has not audited up to 30 of these
foreign missions while three
quarter of these foreign missions
are also revenue generating
agencies?
“So, there is nobody to audit the
revenue generated and the
expenditure they incur.
“The office of the AGF has been
short-changed and the budget has
been reduced to nothing. As such,
the government of the day is having
a field day to carry out whatever its
wants to do because they know
they have an office that is not
functioning.”
The PAC has also been saddled with
the responsibility of retrieving the
full report on the audit
investigation into the $20bn
reportedly ‘missing’ from the
accounts of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation from the
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala.
The House had, in plenary on
Wednesday last week, given the
minister seven days to submit the
full report to the lawmakers.
The president had earlier made the
remarks putting the Anual budget
at between N4.3 trillion and N4.9
trillion yearly, this was as he was
trying to oppose an article that had
been put forward by the former CB
Governor, Charles Soludo.
Jonathan had sought to explain
widespread impression of his
government as being terribly
corrupt, saying such allegations are
often fed by spurious claims made
by notable figures like Mr. Soludo.
“So you’ll see that there is a lot of
politicking about some of the
serious issues. Not too long ago I
read in one of the papers, I think
Vanguard, that former chief
economic adviser to President
Obasanjo who also went to
become a CBN governor… Soludo
is a professor and first class
material. Yes, making a first class
in economics, he is a brilliant
person. His secondary school
records are fantastic. So by all
standards he is a brilliant person.
So the Vanguard wrote that he
accused Ngozi; that N30 trillion
was stolen under the watch of
Ngozi in four years,” the president
said.“Ngozi became a finance
minister, let’s say from 2011 till
date. From that time till now, our
annual budget is between N4.3
trillion and N4.9 trillion. So even if
you put all together, it is about 18
plus trillion naira, and not 30
trillion. The budget for these four
years is less than N20 trillion, but
Soludo said that under Ngozi’s
watch they stole N30 trillion. This
is in the papers, social media,
stored in the clouds and will
continue to be there. And when
you type it in it will come out that
during President Jonathan’s time
they stole N30 trillion.”
But while the president hinged his
explanation on realized budget
figures for Nigeria annually, Mr.
Soludo, in his article, based his N30
trillion claim on funds available to
the government, amounts not
reconciled and what the country
should have earned earn if there
had been quality economic policies.
“Under you as the Minister of
Finance and coordinator of the
economy, the basket of our national
treasury is leaking profusely from
all sides. Just a few illustrations,” he
wrote to the finance minister in
January.
“First, you admit that ‘oil theft’ has
reduced oil output from the
average 2.3 – 2.4 million barrels
per day to 1.95 mpd (meaning that
at least 350,000 to 450,000 barrels
per day are being ‘stolen’). On the
average of 400,000 per day and the
oil prices over the past four years,
it comes to about $60bn ‘stolen’ in
just four years.
“In today’s exchange rate, that is
about N12.6tn. This is at a time of
cessation of crisis in the Niger
Delta and the amnesty
programme. Can you tell Nigerians
how much the amnesty
programme costs, and also the
annual cost for ‘protecting’ the
pipelines and security of oil wells?
And the ‘thieves’ are spirits?
“Second, my earlier article stated
that the minimum forex reserves
should have been at least $90bn
by now and you did not challenge
it. Rather, it is about $30bn,
meaning that gross
mismanagement has denied the
country some $60bn or another
N12.6tn. Now, add the ‘missing’
$20bn from the NNPC. You
promised a forensic audit report
‘soon’, and more than a year later,
the report itself is still ‘missing’.
This is over N4tn, and we don’t
know how much more has ‘missed’
since Sanusi cried out.“How many
trillions of naira were paid for oil
subsidy (unappropriated?)? How
many trillions (in actual fact) have
been ‘lost’ through customs duty
waivers over the last four years?
As coordinator of the economy,
can you tell Nigerians why the
price of Automotive Gas Oil,
popularly called diesel, has still
not come down despite the crash
in global crude oil prices, and how
much is being appropriated by
friends in the process?
“Be honest: Do you really know (as
coordinator and minister of
finance) how many trillions of
naira self- financing government
agencies earn and spend? I have a
long list but let me wait for now. I
do not want to talk about other
‘black pots’ that impinge on
national security.”
Mr. Soludo added, “My estimate,
Madam, is that probably more
than N30tn has either been stolen,
or lost, or unaccounted for, or
simply mismanaged under your
watchful eyes in the past four
years. Since you claimed to be in
charge, Nigerians are right to ask
you to account. Think about what
this amount could mean for the
112 million poor Nigerians, or for
our schools, hospitals, roads,
etc.“Soon, you will start asking the
citizens to pay this or that tax,
while some faceless ‘thieves’ are
pocketing over $40m per day from
oil alone.”
In his interview with ThisDay, the
president said after reading the
former CBN governor’s claims, they
(cabinet members) simply asked
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala about the
impression of her former
colleagues at the World Bank, about
Mr. Soludo’s charges. He said they
were convinced it was political.
“We asked Ngozi how her
colleagues in the World Bank saw
the accusation and she said they
were laughing and couldn’t believe
it. There are certain things that you
just cannot believe and if that is
coming from somebody considered
to be cerebral like Professor Soludo,
then of course you know what the
ordinary person would say. It is all
political,” the president said.
http://www.nigerianeye.com/2015/03/fgs-annual-budget-is-n20-trillion-not.html?m=1

They are all gangs of thieves stealing our money. Oh Nigeria don suffer.