I was forced to sign N9.12trn 2018 budget into law – Buhari

…Faults N578bn padding by NASS
…Decries budget cuts of key projects
…Bemoans N14.5bn hike in NASS budget
MASS: No, we’re not executive rubber stamp, padding justifiable
President Muhammadu Buhari has said he was compelled to sign the 2018 Budget into law given the numerous insertions and alterations made in the budget by the National Assembly before passing the bill.

The President added that he was concerned about some of the changes that the National Assembly made to the budget proposals that he presented seven months ago.

Buhari said that he decided to sign the 2018 Budget in order not to further slowdown the pace of recovery of the economy, which has doubtlessly been affected by the delay in passing the budget.

The President expressed his displeasure on Wednesday when he appended his signature to the budget bill at the Aso Villa, Abuja.

He said that it was unfortunate the National Assembly did not give much regard in what has been sent to him.

The 2018 Budget signed into law, provides for aggregate expenditure of N9.12 trillion, which is 22.6% higher than the 2017 Appropriation.

The President said that further details of the approved budget will be provided by the Minister of Budget and National Planning.

Buhari maintained that “the logic behind the Constitutional direction that budgets should be proposed by the Executive is that, it is the Executive that knows and defines its policies and projects.”

The Daily Times recalls that President Buhari had on November 7, 2017, presented the 2018 budget proposal to the National Assembly.

Buhari lamented that the National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

He bemoaned that many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation.

The President said, “Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualised, designed and costed and will therefore be difficult to execute.

“Furthermore, many of these new projects introduced by the National Assembly have been added to the budgets of most MDAs with no consideration for institutional capacity to execute them or the incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.

“As it is, some of these projects relate to matters that are the responsibility of the States and Local Governments, and for which the Federal Government should therefore not be unduly burdened.

Buhari recalled that when he submitted the 2018 Budget proposals to the National Assembly on November 7, 2017, he had hoped that the usual legislative review process would be quick, so as to move Nigeria towards a predictable January-December financial year.

“The importance of this predictability cannot be over-emphasised”, he stated.

“While the Federal Government’s budget represents less than 10% of aggregate yearly expenditure in the economy, it has a very significant accelerator effect on the financial plans of other tiers of government, and even more importantly, the private sector, which mostly operates on a January-December financial year”, Buhari said.

Speaking further, the President said, notwithstanding, the delay this year, he is determined to continue to work with the National Assembly towards improving the budgeting process and restoring the country to the January-December fiscal cycle.

He said: “I note, with pleasure, that the National Assembly is working on the enactment of an Organic Budget Law, so as to improve the efficiency of the nation’s budgetary process.

“As I mentioned during the presentation of the 2018 Appropriation Bill, we intend to use the 2018 Budget to consolidate the achievements of previous budgets and deliver on Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020.

“Such examples of projects from which cuts were made are as follows: The provisions for some nationally/regionally strategic infrastructure projects such as Counter-part funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project were cut by an aggregate of N11.5billion.

“Similarly, provisions for some ongoing critical infrastructure projects in the FCT, Abuja especially major arterial roads and the mass transit rail project, were cut by a total of N7.5 billion.

“The provision for Rehabilitation and Additional Security Measures for the United Nations Building by the FCT, Abuja was cut by N3.9 billion from N4 billion to N100 million; this will make it impossible for the Federal Government of Nigeria to fulfill its commitment to the United Nations on this project.

“The provisions for various Strategic Interventions in the health sector such as the upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines through the cold chain supply system, provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons on treatment, establishment of chemotherapy centres and procurement of dialysis consumables were cut by an aggregate amount of N7.45 billion Naira.

“The provision for security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools across the country were cut by N3 billion at a time when securing our students against acts of terrorism ought to be a major concern of government”.

Buhari further observed that the provision for the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme was cut by N8.7 billion.

According to him, “at a time when we are working with Labour to address compensation-related issues, a total of N5 billion was cut from the provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment”.

The president noted further that the provisions for Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks, which are key industrialisation initiatives of this administration, were cut by a total of N14.5 billion.

“The provision for Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport was cut from N2 billion to N500 million which will further delay the completion of this critical project.

“The Take-off Grant for the Maritime University in Delta State, a key strategic initiative of the Federal Government, was cut from N5 billion to N3.4 billion.

“About 70 new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.

“In doing so, the National Assembly applied some of the additional funds expected from the upward review of the oil price benchmark to the Ministry’s vote. Regrettably, however, in order to make provision for some of the new roads, the amounts allocated to some strategic major roads have been cut by the National Assembly.

“Another area of concern is the increase by the National Assembly of the provisions for Statutory Transfers by an aggregate of N73.96 billion. Most of these increases are for recurrent expenditure at a time we are trying to keep down the cost of governance.

“An example of this increase is the budget of the National Assembly itself which has increased by N14.5 billion, from N125 billion to N139.5 billion without any discussion with the Executive.

“However, it is my intention to seek to remedy some of the most critical of these issues through a supplementary and/or amendment budget which I hope the National Assembly will be able to expeditiously consider,” the president added.

Meanwhile, the president expressed satisfaction with the success recorded in the implementation of the 2017 Budget.

He stressed that a total sum of N1.5 trillion has been released for the implementation of capital projects during the 2017 fiscal year.

“In response to this and other policy measures implemented, we have observed significant improvement in the performance of the Nigerian economy,” he stated.

Buhari assured that to achieve the laudable objectives of the 2018 Budget, his administration would work very hard to generate the revenues required to finance our projects and programmes.

He said that the positive global oil market outlook, as well as continuing improvement in non-oil revenues, make the government optimistic about its ability to finance the budget.

“However, being a deficit budget, the Borrowing Plan will be forwarded to the National Assembly shortly. I crave the indulgence of the National Assembly for a speedy consideration and approval of the Plan”.

The president also commended the Ministers of Budget and National Planning, the Budget Office of the Federation, and everyone who “worked tirelessly and sacrificed so much to bring us to this day.

“However, the job is only partly done. I am sure you will remain committed to advancing our Change Agenda, not only in the preparation of the national budget, but also in ensuring its effective implementation,” Buhari said.

But the president thanked the leadership of the National Assembly, particularly the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara as well as all the Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members, for passing the 2018 Appropriation Bill, after seven months.

The 2018 budget is the longest in the history of budget passage in Nigeria as it took the lawmakers seven months to pass the Appropriation bill.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has reacted to the comment by President Buhari over the insertion of N578 billion into the 2018 budget, saying that the federal lawmakers are not executive rubber stamp.

Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon Abdulrazak Namdas in a statement issued on Wednesday evening, insisted that the budget is usually a proposal by the Executive to the National Assembly, which the latter is given the constitutional power of appropriation to alter, make additions, costs or reduce as it may deem necessary.

The House Spokesmann stated that Legislature is not expected to be a rubber-stamp by simply approving the Executive proposals and returning the budget to Mr. President.

The lawmaker said that “the additions Mr. President complained of in his speech are justifiable.

“We are on the same page with Mr. President in his desire to return our budget cycle to January-December. By the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, the budget estimates should be with the National Assembly around September of the year.

In the case of the 2018 budget, the estimates came behind schedule in November 2017, even though this attempt was seen as one of the earliest in recent years. Going forward, we urge the Executive to speed up the reporting time to the National Assembly by complying fully with the FRA.

“Besides, there were delays that should be blamed on the heads of MDAs. Mr. President will recall that he had to direct ministers and heads of agencies to go to the National Assembly to defend their proposals.

This came after the National Assembly had persistently raised the alarm over the non-cooperative attitudes of these government officials. On this grounds, the delay in passing the budget cannot be blamed on the legislature.

“New projects in budget. On this aspect, we have to remind Mr. President that we are representatives of our people and wish to state that even the common man deserves a mention in the budget by including projects that will directly affect his life positively.

Some of the projects designed by the executive, as high-sounding as their names suggest, do not meet the needs of the common man.

“National Assembly budget. Before 2015, the budget of the National Assembly was N150 billion for several years. It was cut down to N120bn in 2015 and further down to N115bn in 2016.

In 2017, the budget was N125bn and N139.5bn in 2018. This means that the budget of the National Assembly is still far below the N150bn in the years before 2015.

“While we commend Mr. President for a good working relationship, we also wish to state that we have a job to do, which requires adequate funding as well.

The additional costs and projects to the budget were done in good faith for the sole purpose of improving the lives of Nigerians,” the House spokesman stated.

Namdas said that the House welcomed the proposal by Mr. President to forward a supplementary budget to the National Assembly to address other areas of pressing demands and commended the President and the entire executive arm for a cordial working relationship.

We agree with Reps position- Senate
Meanwhile, the Senate has said that it is on the same page with the House of Representatives over its response to the issues raised by Buhari on the 2018 Appropriations while signing it into law, saying that it totally agree with the position stated by the lower chamber.

The Senate stared this in a statement made available last night by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi.

The statement reads in part, “ It should also be noted that the leadership of both chambers have directed the chairmen of our committees on appropriations to provide item by item, detail explanations on all points raised by the President for the benefit of members of the public. They will therefore address a press conference on Friday, June 22, 2018.

“It should however be noted that the action of the National Assembly while working on the budget was informed by the provision of the constitution on the need for inclusion, balance and the fact that the first responsibility of government is the security and welfare of all citizens.”