Nigeria Content Online

The
Federal Government yesterday defended its performance in implementing
the 2010 budget, saying that only 46.9 percent of the total
appropriation for its ministries, departments, and agencies has been
utilised till date.

Ibrahim
Dankwambo, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), said in
Abuja that this translated into only about N351.59 billion, out of
about N749.74 billion that was cash-backed for various projects
embedded in the 2010 budget.

Atiku
Abubakar, former vice president and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
presidential aspirant, recently stirred the hornet’s nest when he took
a swipe at the country’s economic health, accusing the present
administration of not implementing the 2010 budget.

Olusegun
Aganga, the finance minister, while debunking Mr. Atiku’s claims, noted
that the budget performance in the ministries, departments, and
agencies is expected to reach about 64.6 percent level by the end of
the third quarter of the year.

Notwithstanding,
the utilisation rate under the 2010 budget is generally considered very
low when compared to the N913.36 billion, or 76.6 percent achieved
under the 2009 budget last fiscal period.

Details
of the N4.6trillion 2010 budget, which was signed into law by President
Goodluck Jonathan on April 22, following a protracted disagreement with
members of National Assembly over certain inclusions in the original
appropriation, provided for a capital vote of over N1.7trillion (about
30 percent of the total budget outlay), with the balance meant to take
care of overheads.

Improved performance expected

But,
according to Mr. Dankwambo, government was optimistic that the
performance, in terms of the utilisation of the capital vote by the
ministries, departments, and agencies, would improve significantly
before the end of the year, pointing out that the low utilisation rate
was attributable to the political crisis that engulfed the country in
the wake of the ill-health of former President Umaru Yar Adua, which
culminated in his demise late last year.

“The
sum of N1.19 trillion was cash-backed in year 2009, of which N913.26
billion, or 76.6 percent was utilised. For 2010, the sum of N749.74
billion was cash-backed, of which N351.59 billion was utilised as at
30th October, 2010. This translates to a capital performance of 46.9
percent,” Mr. Dankwambo said.

He
described 2010 as a special year, considering, he said, the enormous
challenges government encountered in the course of inaugurating a new
president and reconstitution of a new Federal Executive Council (FEC),
arguing that the type of budget utilisation rate is not too bad,
considering the peculiar political challenges the country had.

On
the capacity of the ministries to utilise these balance of the funds
before the end of the year, Mr. Dankwabo said the issue was not in
their capacity to use the money, but on the type of projects the
appropriations were for, adding, “We are just entering the period of
dry season, with more companies awarded various contracts. So, in the
next few weeks, we will see improvements in the utilisation rate of the
capital votes.”

Also,
he said that the statutory allocation released by his office to the
three tiers of government between January and September totaled N2.7
trillion.