Three months after the 2016 Appropriation Bill was presented to a joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, both the Senate and the House of Representatives individually passed the bill within the same day after they received the report on the budget from the respective committees on appropriations a day earlier.
The budget proposal has been riddled with controversy, especially with the National Assembly claiming that the proposal sent to it by Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Senate was different from the version presented by the President at the National Assembly. After much hullabaloo, that was finally sorted out.
Not long after that, another controversy arose from spurious line items in the budget, which caused the sacking of the Director of the Budget Office and the redeployment of 22 directors from the Budget Office and 162 others from budget-related matters in other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Finally, the budget has been passed with the total amount being N6.06 trillion, a reduction of about N17 billion from the proposed N6.07 trillion and a far lesser reduction than was publicly expected. Now that the budget has been passed, warts and all, the real work begins for the Federal Government.
For the past seven years, capital budget implementation has averaged 52% with the highest coming in 2013 at 60%. If the implementation for this year does not improve, it means that up to 48% of the N1.62 trillion budgeted for infrastructure and other capital spending will not be utilized, which will negatively impact the growth targets of the Federal Government for this year.
It is important that the Federal Government removes bottlenecks to speedy and effective budget implementation: whether it is through the streamlining of contract awarding processes or timely release of funds, the latter more crucial following the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that puts all government funds in one single account.
Without an improvement in budget implementation process and the added complication of the TSA, it is likely that there will be even a lower budget implementation rate compared to previous years.
These can be done without compromising government accountability, as there is the risk of approving dubious contracts and projects or those without any benefits in order to achieve a higher budget implementation rate, if public procurement laws and checks are followed to the letter.
As it stands currently, the fiscal year 2016 is starting four months late; as such, there needs to be a sense of urgency in the implementation of the budget.
The integrity of the Buhari administration and that of his party, the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) rests on this. As admitted by the President himself, expectations are very high, and while all might not be able to be met, delivering on the projects within the budget will go a long way in making Nigeria a better place.
The start of projects will provide a much-needed injection into the Nigerian economy, as companies handling projects will be able to hopefully create employment through those projects.
Nigerians are eagerly awaiting the government to start delivering on promises and projects now that they have received the backing of the law on how to spend public funds.
The ball is now in your court, President Buhari.
