UBEC, Railway, others yet to get funds We’ve achieved 79% implementation – FG
By Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
Abuja
With just one month to the end of 2016, Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are in for a stiff competition for budgetary allocations as they scramble to fund their 2016 budgets.
Piecemeal fund releases by the Federal Government is said to be making the budget funding “a political affair.”
Blueprint learnt on good authorities that ministers and chief executives of government agencies have been besieging the offices of the trio of Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, his Finance counterpart, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, to lobby for funds.
Scarcity of resources accruing to the government has deepened apprehensions and made releases to ministries and parastatals competitive and at the discretion of the three federal government officials.
The 2016 budget was based on many budgetary parameters that went wrong along the line. The oil price dipped further in the year just as production capacity was dragged down by activities of militants in the Niger Delta region.
Following series of attacks on oil installations, oil production was drastically cut from an average of 2.1 million barrels per day to about 1.1 million barrels per day.
The 2016 budget which was submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2015 was embroiled in a winding controversy over padding scandal which rocked the budget.
The development delayed passage of the Appropriation Bill by National Assembly with President Buhari signing it into law on May 6, 2016.
Though the Federal Government, through the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, claimed to have implemented 79 percent of the budget, as at September, details of releases dated October 21, published on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation suggested otherwise – low implementation of the budget.
Last week, the minister announced that the Federal Government had so far spent about N3.57 trillion out of its N6.06 trillion budget for 2016 as at the end of September this year.
This, according to Udoma, who spoke at the KPMG CFO Forum Breakfast Meeting in Lagos, represents about 79 per cent performance of the prorated budget for the first three quarters of the year.
He said: “Notwithstanding serious revenue shortfalls, the Federal Government had spent about N3.57 trillion as of September 2016 out of the full year budget of N6.06 trillion for the 2016 fiscal year and this translates to a 79 per cent performance of the prorated budget for the first three quarters.
“In addition to the total of N2.44 trillion so far released for capital expenditure, non-debt recurrent and service-wide vote expenditure, a total of N1.138 trillion had also been paid out in domestic and foreign debt service expenditures and this includes N44 billion transferred to the sinking fund to retire maturing obligations.”
The minister further told his audience that budgeted personnel cost and debt service obligations had been fully met and that despite fiscal challenges, government remains committed to meeting its debt obligations while funding critical sectors to enable it to function smoothly.
“The total amount of N753.6 billion already released for capital expenditure in 2016 was the highest in the nation’s recent history, even in an era of high oil prices. Indeed, the capital releases to date exceeded the aggregate capital expenditure budget for 2015 of about N700 billion, inclusive of capital expenditure in statutory transfers,” he further added.
But contrary to the minister’s position, the agency by agency breakdown published by the Budget Office titled “Total Capital and Capital Supplementation for Reconciliation with OAGF (21st October, 2016)” shows that most of the ministries and agencies have been underfunded with many receiving a fraction of what is allocated in the budget.
Affected in this respect are; the Office of Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari and that of the president’s Chief Security Officer (CSO), have not received any money from the amounts earmarked for them.
Key agencies such as the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Nigerian Railway Corporation also received no funds from the Federation Account. UBEC has N1, 928,271,348 allocation in the budget while Railways has N330, 245,354.
Security organisations under the Ministry of Interior such as the Nigeria Prisons Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps all got far less than their respective allocation.
Of the N14, 435,639,216 budgeted for Prisons, only N3, 600,000,000, according to the Budget Office, was released. The Immigration Service received N1, 965,177,910 out of the N9, 825,889,550 allotted to it.
Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria received a paltry N562, 721 of the N23, 901,383 it is statutorily planned to receive.
Most of the Technology Incubation Centres, across the country also received less than a million naira each. Also with zero receipt is Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.
President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, however, allayed fears over implementation of the budget as he explained that the government will continue implementing the 2017 budget until May 2017, being the twelve month period allowed by the Appropriation Act.