On Wednesday, the National Assembly, finally, passed the 2018 Appropriation Bill. From a budget estimate of N8.6 trillion presented to a joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari last November, the parliament approved a total budget of N9.12trillion, indicating an increase of N508billion.
The 2018 budget is premised on oil benchmark of $51 per barrel and the production of 2.3million barrels of oil per day.
While the exchange rate is pegged at N305 per US dollar.
In the budget, which is to run until June 30, 2019, from the date it is assented to by the President, the Ministries of Power, Works and Housing and Interior got the lion share with N714.6billion, N576.6billion respectively.
The Ministry of Education got N542.1billion; Transport, N 267.1 while N101. billion was allocated to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Just as the Ministry of Health got the sum of N356.3 billion.
On the other hand, the National Assembly got N135.5billion, while the Universal Basic Education (UBE) and the Independent National Electoral Communion (INEC) got N109billion and N45.5billion respectively. Also, the sum of N45billion was appropriated for North East Intervention Fund, while the zonal intervention fund popularly known as constituency project got N100billion.
The budget if fully actualised would no doubt impact positively on the economy, with the citizens being the ultimate beneficiary. However, despite the excitement over the passage of the budget and increase in the size, the question that readily comes to mind is how far can the government go in the implementation of the 2018 Appropriation Bill. This is against the backdrop that national budgets in recent times have suffered largely from lack of dutiful implementation.
It is a known fact that even federal lawmakers had complained severally, and bitterly too, about the non-performance of the budget in recent times.
In fact, but for the intervention of the House leadership, the presentation of this year’s budget by President Buhari at the National Assembly last year would have been marred by protests by lawmakers, especially members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the poor implementation of budgets by the government, since the President assumed office on May 29, 2015.
On that fateful day, members of the PDP in the Green Chamber after series of meetings had resolved to publicly protest the non-implementation of the 2016 and 2017 budgets by President Buhari’s administration. As part of the protest, the lawmaker had agreed to carry placards during the presentation of the 2018 Appropriation Bill by President Buhari, so as to underscore the seriousness of the party. One of the inscriptions by a lawmaker from one of the South South states, was “implement or resign.”
In his closing remarks after the presentation of the budget, the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara had aptly said that “the questions that must be answered include whether we have effectively enforced 2017 fiscal targets and whether managers have complied with the budget as authorized by the legislature.
“Our experience with the implementation of the 2016 Budget amply demonstrates that obeying our Appropriation Laws maximizes the release of our potentials while violating the Appropriation Laws caps the release of our national potentials. This means that we have to redouble our efforts in implementing the 2017 Budget, if we must retire it in January or at the very least roll over most of the projects in 2017 budget to 2018. No need to remind us that fiscal indiscipline is as grievous a problem as corruption which this government is busy eliminating.”
However, it is crystal clear that the lawmakers, just like the executives are culpable in the dismal performance of the budget in recent time.
It is instructive to note, that the National Assembly, the House of Representatives in particular, has not done so much in oversighting the various Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that previous budgets are dutifully implemented. This must change. Otherwise, the 2018 Appropriation Bill would end up like others before it.
Like the member representing Esan North East and Esan South East Federal Constituency of Edo State, Sergius Ogun rightly pointed out in a recent interview, “until we hold the feet of the MDAs to fire, we do not expect them to do the right thing. There is a saying that people do what you inspect, not what you expect. If we have to follow that, you cannot sit down in the office here; they bring the budget for you, they stampede you into passing the budget and then you give it back to them and then you do not go to inspect what they do. Therefore, as the country begins another budget cycle, the onus is on the lawmakers, particularly chairmen of various House Committees, to ensure that this year’s budget is different from previous ones by way of implementation. It is time for the lawmakers to roll up their sleeves.
Budgeting is not just about allocating billions or trillions of naira to critical sectors of the economy. The key issue is how does these billions or trillions appropriated translate to a better life for the citizens.
One of the most grevious sins the government can commit against the people is to fail to implement the national budget.
Suffice it to say that it is only through the budget, especially capital expenditure, the electorate gets their own share of the national cake.
To ensure that the 2018 budget achieves a higher level of performance, there is need for the parliament to come up with Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The MDAs should be made to submit to the relevant legislative committees their work plan for every quarter. These work plans should be reviewed from time to time by parliament to know how far the budget is doing; before the next budget defence session where the lawmakers are expected to do an overall evaluation of the performance of the budgets in the various MDAs.
Besides, the legislature must tell the executive arm of government in very clear terms that budgets are not mere spending plans. It is like every other law enacted by the National Assembly. Consequently, its violations must not be taken lightly. If the members of the Executive continues to treat the implementation of the budget with levity, then parliament should not hesitate to weild the big stick.
I appreciate the fact that 2018 is an election year; expectedly, both the legislative and executive arms of government would be more interested in politics, than governance. But is in their own interest to ensure that this year’s budget performs better than preceding ones, especially as the electorate would most likely be making their choice in the general election based on how those presently in the saddle have affected their lives.
The post 2018 budget and matters arising appeared first on The Sun News.