STILL WAITING FOR THE BUDGET

The acting president should assent to the budget without further delay

Five months into the year, the 2017 budget is still a subject of speculations even when it has been passed by the National Assembly. To compound the problem, a needless controversy was last week woven around who would sign in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari who is currently on medical vacation in the United Kingdom. While it is bad enough that we have almost entered the middle of the year and we don’t have a budget, the debate about whether or not the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo could assent only added to the air of uncertainty that impacts negatively on the national economy.

With the submission of the budget documents to the acting president last Friday, there is now an assurance that he would sign once satisfied with the details, though there is still no indication as to when that would happen. “I think it was only this morning that the Minister of Budget and National Planning informed council that the budget has been passed. He has not sent to us individually the copies of the budget passed. We now need to look at it again and if there is any discrepancy, then we will report back to the Minister of Budget and Planning for harmonisation” said the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed after the FEC meeting last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in passing the budget, the National Assembly raised the figure from the N7.28 trillion earlier proposed by President Buhari to N7.44 trillion. Of the total, N1,841trn was earmarked for debt service, N177 billion for sinking fund for maturing bonds, N2,991trn for recurrent expenditure while the sum of N2,174 trn was for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure (exclusive of capital expenditure in statutory transfers) for the year ending on December 31, 2017. Also

CAPITAL PROJECTS WHICH ARE CRITICAL FOR DEVELOPMENT CANNOT BE EXECUTED SINCE CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS CANNOT BE INITIATED WITHOUT BUDGETARY APPROVAL

going by the figures, N434bn was appropriated for statutory transfers; National Judicial Council, N100bn; Niger Delta Development Commission, N64.02bn; Universal Basic Education, N95.2bn; National Assembly, N125bn; Public Complaints Commission, N4bn; Independent National Electoral Commission, N45bn; and National Human Rights Commission, N1.2bn.

While we agree that discrepancies in the figures between the legislative and executive arms are normal and need to be addressed, we disapprove of the time it is taking to get the 2017 budget on stream, especially at this most critical period. The message being sent out is that those in positions of authority in both the executive and the legislature do not show as much care as is required due to the fact that they are never adversely affected by the delays in the passage of budget.

To the extent that a budget provides financial control and serves as the basis against which developmental activities can be monitored, the current delay indeed suggests that the Nigerian economy is not operating optimally. First, capital projects which are critical for development cannot be executed since contractual agreements cannot be initiated without budgetary approval. Second, following the fact that capital projects cannot be executed, contractors cannot be paid and other businesses which provide services directly or indirectly to the contractors are affected by the squeeze. This leads to cyclical unemployment and the shutting down of some small businesses. For instance, the itinerant hawker who hitherto provided food to labourers at a construction site may be out of business whilst projects are delayed. Third, the economy contracts at a rapid pace due to the liquidity squeeze. And four, since the government intends to borrow to fund recurrent and other essential expenditure which is in itself not prudent, this unnecessary delay can only hamper all the projections.

Given the foregoing, we urge the acting president to speed up the process of vetting the document. He should assent to the 2017 budget without further delay.