*Laments NASS cut of 2nd Niger Bridge, Enugu Airport votes

By Chesa Chesa

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday signed into law the 2018 Appropriation Bill of N9.12 trillion with reservations.

He faulted the National Assembly’s inclusion of projects, which he said, would make the budget difficult to implement.

Buhari disclosed that the National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to it for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects amounting to N578 billion.

The brief signing ceremony at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja was witnessed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, Senator Ibn N’alla, who represented the Senate President Bukola Saraki, and Hon. Ado Doguwa, for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.

This came seven months after Buhari presented the budget proposal to the National Assembly last November, and a month after they passed it, having upped the N8.6 trillion proposed figure by about N500 billion, a development the President was not excited about.

In his remarks after signing the budget, Buhari decried the late passage of the bill and the lawmakers’ decision to increase the National Assembly’s budget by N14.5 billion, while unfairly slashing the allocations for critical projects such as the 2nd Niger Bridge, East-West Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the provision of security for unity schools in the face of security challenges, among others, as objectionable discretion.

Buhari said that he signed the budget despite his reservations to keep the economy on the path of recovery, adding that he would send a supplementary bill at a later date to the National Assembly to augment the budget.

The president said that he had hoped to move Nigeria’s budget cycle to a predictable January-December financial year to aid the operations of most private sector players, even when the Federal Government’s budget represents less than 10 per cent of aggregate yearly expenditures in the economy.

He explained that he intended to use the 2018 Budget to consolidate the achievements of previous budgets and deliver on Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020.

Buhari said: “It is in this regard that I am concerned about some of the changes that the National Assembly has made to the budget proposals that I presented. The logic behind the Constitutional direction that budgets should be proposed by the Executive is that, it is the Executive that knows and defines its policies and projects.

“Unfortunately, that has not been given much regard in what has been sent to me. The National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualised, designed and costed and will therefore be difficult to execute.

“Furthermore, many of these new projects introduced by the National Assembly have been added to the budgets of most Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with no consideration for institutional capacity to execute them or the incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.

“As it is, some of these projects relate to matters that are the responsibility of the states and local governments, and for which the Federal Government should therefore not be unduly burdened,” Buhari lamented.

He went ahead to give examples of projects from which cuts were made, as follows: “The provisions for some nationally/regionally strategic infrastructure projects such as counterpart funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project were cut by an aggregate of N11.5 billion.

“Similarly, provisions for some on-going critical infrastructure projects in the FCT, Abuja, especially major arterial roads and the mass transit rail project, were cut by a total of N7.5 billion.

“The provision for rehabilitation and additional security measures for the United Nations (UN) Building by the FCT, Abuja, was cut by N3.9 billion from N4 billion to N100 million. This will make it impossible for the Federal Government of Nigeria to fulfill its commitment to the UN on this project.

“The provisions for various Strategic Interventions in the health sector such as the upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines through the cold chain supply system, provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons on treatment, establishment of chemotherapy centres and procurement of dialysis consumables were cut by an aggregate amount of N7.45 billion.

“The provision for security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools across the country was cut by N3billion at a time when securing our students against acts of terrorism ought to be a major concern of government.

“The provision for the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme was cut by N8.7billion.

“At a time when we are working with labour to address compensation-related issues, a total of N5billion was cut from the provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment.

“The provisions for Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks, which are key industrialisation initiatives of this administration, were cut by N14.5billion.

“The provision for construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport was cut from N2 billion to N500 million, which will further delay the completion of this critical project.

“The take-off grant for the Maritime University in Delta State, a key strategic initiative of the Federal Government, was cut from N5 billion to N3.4 billion.

“About 70 new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. In doing so, the National Assembly applied some of the additional funds expected from the upward review of the oil price benchmark to the Ministry’s vote.

“Regrettably, however, in order to make provision for some of the new roads, the amount allocated to some strategic major roads have been cut by the National Assembly”.

The President further highlighted areas where the lawmakers allegedly padded the budgetary allocations as the Presidency was not consulted.

His words: “Another area of concern is the increase by the National Assembly of the provisions for Statutory Transfers by an aggregate of N73.96 billion. Most of these increases are for recurrent expenditure at a time we are trying to keep down the cost of governance.

“An example of this increase is the budget of the National Assembly itself which has increased by N14.5billion, from N125 billion to N139.5 billion without any discussion with the executive.”

Buhari said all these notwithstanding, “It is my intention to seek to remedy some of the most critical of these issues through a supplementary and/or amendment budget which I hope the National Assembly will be able to expeditiously consider”.

He said the administration would work very hard to generate the revenues required to finance projects and programmes in the 2018 budget, which is 22.6% higher than the 2017 budget, and that the positive global oil market outlook and continuing improvement in non-oil revenues, give room for optimism.

“However, being a deficit budget, the Borrowing Plan will be forwarded to the National Assembly shortly,” he stated.


http://authorityngr.com/2018/06/20/2018-budget-difficult-to-implement-buhari/

Everything seems difficult for Mr president...