FG to spend N10.594trn in 2020

.NASS beats 5-yr record on budget passage .How N264bn was added

The Senate has defended the N264 billion increase in the 2020 budget as not padding of the appropriation bill but harvested additional revenue.

Recall that on Thursday, the Senate passed a budget size of N10.594 trillion as against the N10.33 trillion naira presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly on October 8, 2019.

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Briefing the media immediately after the passage of the 2020 Appropriation bill following the adoption of the report of Senate Committee on Appropriation, its chairman, Senator Jibrin Barau when asked, said the word padding is alien to the 9th Senate because the infusion on additional vote for capital projects was done in collaboration with the executive arm of government.

According to him, the Senate saw avenue to make additional revenue and just fixed the expected increased revenue to sectors in need of additional revenue.

He said: “In a presidential system of government, there is room for checks on what any arm of government is doing by the other. President Buhari no doubt presented a perfect budget but it is our own responsibility as the parliament to critically look at what was presented by the executive and make corrections where necessary.

“During the course of deliberating on the budget, we saw opportunities of where we can get additional income for the government and we deployed them to areas that need further spending.

“The National Assembly has the right to do it and that is what we have done”, he said.

Presenting the report, Senator Barau Jibrin said the increased of N264bn allowed for interventions in critical areas such as national security, road infrastructure mines and steel development, health among others.

Senator Jubrin said the Statutory Transfer stood at N560.5bn, recurrent expenditure-N4.8bn, Capital expenditure-N2.5bn, Debt servicing-N2.7bn, Fiscal deficit-N2.3trn and deficit to GDP of 1.52 per cent.

He pointed out that daily oil production stood at 2.18 million barrels per day, Oil Benchmark stood at $57 per barrel against $55 proposed by the Executive, while the exchange rate stood at N305 per dollar.

Capital Expenditure for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government  (MDAs) for the 2020 fiscal year are: Ministry of Defence – N116,181,290,730; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, N7,608,141,474; Ministry of Information and Culture, N7,555,803,233; Ministry of Interior, N34,035,825,302; Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, N1,722,796,040; Ministry of Police Affairs, N15,959,986,864; Ministry of Communication Technology, N5,919,002,554; and Office of the National Security Adviser, N27,418,469,323.

Others are: Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N25,188,940,930; Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, N2,158,620,395; Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, N124,395,096,917; Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, N4,976,199,925; Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, N38,583,331,761; Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, N24,445,756,678; Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, N62,882,531,566; Federal Ministry of Transport, N121,366,932,571; and Federal Ministry of Aviation, N52,061,533,122.

Also, for the 2020 fiscal year, the Ministry of Power has an allocation of N129,082,499,363; Ministry of Petroleum Resources, N3,337,444,887; Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, N10,431,563,177; Ministry of Works and Housing, N315,563,564,269; Ministry of Water Resources, N91,679,927,042; Ministry of Justice, N3,853,600,220; Federal Capital Territory Administration, N62,407,154,360; and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N23,120,350,399.

Others include Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, N3,735,486,210; Military of Women Affairs, N6,650,300,966; Federal Ministry of Education, N84,728,529,572; Ministry of Health, N59,909,430,837; Federal Ministry of Environment, N12,350,140,731; and Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, N61,085,146,003.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in his concluding remarks after the 2020 budget was passed, said: “When we came in, all of us approved our legislative agenda, and one of the key pillars of this agenda is to take back our budget cycle from the very undesirable cycle that cannot be defined to something that can be defined and bought into by our country and business partners living in and outside the country.

“Today, we have been able to achieve this. It means where there is will, there is always a way. This is something that we have been able to achieve together with the House of Representatives.

“I must give members of the Ninth National Assembly the credit, because we thought it was going to be impossible.

“Let me also commend the buying-in of the executive arm of government. When we continued to preach that we have to receive the 2020 budget estimates before the end of September, it was not easy for the executive.

“I know they (Executive) worked day and night. So it was presented to us on the 8th of October. We have been able to work harmoniously. There is no way we can achieve this without all of us working together.

“I want to commend our colleagues from the opposition. This Senate from the beginning, we said, will be bi-partisan. You have given us all the support that we require, and indeed, this is the way it should be”, Lawan added.

The Senate President also noted that with the recent passage of landmark legislations such as the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Act, Finance Bills and Public Procurement Bills by the National Assembly, the Executive arm of government is sufficiently empowered to ensure the successful implementation of the 2020 budget.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed satisfaction with the 9th National Assembly over early passage of the 2020 budget.

 The party described this as a development that is sure to return Nigeria to the normal January to December budget cycle and another solid milestone by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration.

The party commended  both chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives, for putting National Interest before any other interest, which is a clear departure from the 8th National Assembly which it said “used filibustering, political manipulation and other devious practices in their failed attempt to sabotage the APC government”.

The party in a statement by national publicity secretary, Lanre Issa – Onilu, also commend President Muhammadu Buhari for showing leadership in the prompt submission of the 2020 budget proposals and his clear directive to heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to suspend international travels to defend their respective budgets and provide the required cooperation to the National Assembly in order to ensure timely passage of the 2020 budget.

“Nigerians will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the early budget passage as it will guarantee full implementation of many of the economic, infrastructural, social investments and other developmental programmes contained in the budget and which will directly and positively impact on the people.

“Again, the early budget passage will allow for proper and better planning for both the government and the private sector. The entire financial architecture of our country would benefit from this. This includes project financing, contract execution timeline, project implementation and performance monitoring. It will make public procurement predictable, business climate stable, and give confidence to investors”, said the party.

The APC urged the executive and legislature to take full advantage of this new dawn of cordial relations, stressing that this will ultimately translate to better governance for the benefit of Nigerians.