The skepticism with which Nigerians view National Budget has led to its perception as an annual ritual. UCHENNA AWOM writes that a new season bundled with figure contradictions are here again.
The National Assembly premises has become a Mecca of some sort. Ministers, heads of government agencies and departments, service chiefs and many other public officers throng the precincts of the complex to give account of how the previous year budget were spent and how the proposed 2013 budget would be spent.
It is a case of the executive coming to render account to the people on how their commonwealth are expended. However, in the process, several tendencies are put to play, ranging from open grandstanding to mouthing over bloated figures. Such have been the usual practice that are oftentimes laced with subtle recrimination in some cases, shouting marches and of course, arguments over contradictory but mind bugling figures.
The key defences are perhaps the agencies that have hitherto been hidding behind some extant laws that precludes them from presenting their budgets to the National Assembly for scrutiny until the advent of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Consequently, agencies like the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were to join others for the sorties before the lawmakers.
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NNPC Asks for $13.7 billion
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) urged? the National Assembly to approve $13.7 billion for its 2013 budget.
The request was despite the N1,572,300,000,000 it got as its budget for the 2012 fiscal year.
The amount represents a reduction in its initial request of? N1,917,150,000,000 which was turned down.
The Corporation’s Group Executive Director (Exploration and Production), Abiye Memberes presented the request? before the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream).
However, the committee bluffed attempts by Membere to give an overview of the budget. Senators Heineken Lokpobiri and Hayatou Gwarzo, were vehement and insisted that he give the figures in naira and kobo.
Committee Chairman, Emmanuel Paulker, intervened saying, “we are interested in what the Nigerian government is spending; which constitutes your budget and that of the JVC and the PSCs and your agreement with them. We want to know the totality of what you have budgeted for 2012 and tell us how far you’ve gone. That would enable us know how far you’ve gone.”
Replying, Membere said; “2012 budget request is $12.78b; approved for us is $10.48b and in terms of performance as at September, we have spent $6.386b that represents about 61 percent.”It is broken down into different line items with respect to cash call, domestic gas, BRASS LNG? and different elements for which the budget is approved.”So, in summary, 2012 performance that is the total for both the Capex and Opex; what we have spent for this year…”
Meanwhile, aside NNPC budget of $13.7 billion (N2.192 trillion) for 2013 fiscal year; the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulation Agency (PPPRA) also wants N7 billion; Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) – N34 billion; while the main Petroleum Ministry has requested N4 billion in the 2013 fiscal year.
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SURE-P: A case of Project Duplication
The Senate and House of Representatives joint Committees on Petroleum (downstream) lampooned the Chairman of Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) initiative, Dr. Christopher Kolade, over what they termed ‘the rampant duplication of Ministries’, Departments and Agencies (MDA) projects in SURE-P’s budget without corresponding impact on the overall wellbeing of Nigerians.
They particularly condemned the programme, saying after expending N32.482 billion between January and September, there is nothing to show for it.
SURE-P, they said, has not helped the youths in the area of employment as the claim of provision of jobs for 360,000 youths cannot be justified.
The lawmakers further described SURE-P as a government’s instrument of laundering its image as Public Relations Organization (PRO)
The lawmakers, in a unanimous condemnation of virtually all the board’s intervention measures, added that government is cashing in on the credibility of the board chairmen to carry out capital projects that are already being done by several ministries without result to show for it.
However, the budget defence was deferred to this week because Kolade, in their estimation, could not properly clarify its N180 billion 2012 budget expenditure analysis.
They warned that the entire programme is in disarray and therefore needs an overhaul to make it deliver on set targets.
SURE-P, the lawmakers contend, has no focus because its board has no expertise to make any meaningful impact in alleviating the plight of Nigerians following the removal of fuel subsidy by government.
Chairmen of the Committees, Senator Magnus Abe and Hon. Peterside Dakuku, expressed disappointment with Kolades’s explanation of the programmes and as such, they refused to entertain the presentation of his 2013 budget proposal but instead, asked him to furnish both Committees with details of how SURE-P 2012 budgetary allocation was spent.
The joint committee specifically queried the sum of N16 billion spent on the Benin- Ore- Shagamu road, yet without any clear improvement on the state of the road in the last 10 months.
According to Senator Abe, “our fears are not with your credibility, but the fact that these road is the same that was also awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works during this period. “One of the problems of the SURE-P intervention attempts is that there are projects duplication that we don’t seem to know and how payments are made to the contractors.
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PPPRA: Fewer Staff, Bogus N5.7 billion Pay
The Senate was told how the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Authority (PPPRA) spends N5.7 billion as salaries and allowances for 249 staff annually.
The revelation stunned the senators who were glued to their seats during the 2012 budget defence by the agency before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (downstream).
The senators were more shocked by the inability of the PPPRA to account for the 15 kobo it collects on every litre of fuel sold in the country for administrative charges.
The lawmakers were also angered with the agency when it could not produce documents to justify their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and the administrative charges.
Apparently angered by the revelations, the joint committee comprising the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) queried the figures.
Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Reginald Stanley, failed to provide answers to the various questions.
Consequently, the lawmakers walked out the Executive Secretary and his team due to their inability to defend the budget especially when they could not justify the spending of over N5.725billion on 249 staff salaries and allowances.
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They were asked to come back on a date yet to be fixed.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (downstream), Senator Magnus Abe, said; “what I want to bring to our attention is the attitude of some of our operators in the sector who always think that except appropriations are drawn directly from the consolidated revenue fund, they are not accountable to parliament for it. I want to make it very, very clear, that except the money that you get from your father’s farm or your grandfather’s farm is spent, any money that comes through you, or to you or is expended through any agency as part of the public responsibility, is subject to review by the people of Nigeria and the National Assembly that represents the interests of the people of Nigeria.
“So, nobody can receive money on behalf of the Nigerian people, spend it on his own behalf without reference to the National Assembly. I say it in particular to those agencies that are by law allowed to generate and make their own expenditure that all those expenditures not drawn directly on the national budget must also come here and be approved by parliament.
“And except it is approved, nobody should spend any money or disburse any fund that is not pre-approved by parliament. So, if that has been going on in the past, I believe that this meeting today should put a final stop to it; it shouldn’t happen again. In fact, I want all of us to take that into consideration. That is just what I want to say”, he said.
To sum up the defence and the many contradictions, House of Representatives Committee Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Dakuku, declared; “We should not assume that budget is a yearly ritual. It is certainly not a yearly ritual you know or you assume it to be. We have agreed to take up this exercise to ensure that the interest of the Nigerian people is protected in the course of the budgetary process and our resources are applied in the areas where they are truly needed. In this era of reforms, one great tool to reform is the budget. That is why we are taking our budgetary process very seriously.
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