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Despite the
decision by the National Assembly to cut the budget proposals by
government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) by 50 per cent,
the Finance Minister, Segun Aganga, insists the country is buoyant
enough to finance government business.

Many of the
ministries and agencies had their 2011 appropriation sliced in a manner
that members of the various committees say was indicative that the
country is broke and can ill-afford funding the budget.

“The 2010 budget,
in my opinion, is a failed budget,” lamented the chairman, Senate
Committee on Environment, Grace Bent, while appraising the 2010 budget
of the Environment ministry last Thursday.

Mrs Bent’s view was
re-echoed by most of her colleagues in other committees and she finds
it worrisome that the Environment ministry, like many others,
implemented only 47 percent of its capital budget for the year, about
six weeks before the expiration of the 2010 fiscal year, as against 100
per cent recorded in the recurrent expenditure and overhead budget.

Indications are
that out of the total allocation of N29.522 billion in the 2010 budget,
the Finance Ministry has only released N10.115 billion to the ministry
till date.

The Environment
minister, John Odeh, blamed the poor performance of the budget on the
Finance ministry’s failure to release the capital budget in full due to
complaints of shortfall in the country’s revenue.

Mr Odeh’s
counterpart in the interior ministry, Emmanuel Iheanacho, also
announced 100 per cent implementation in recurrent expenditure, while
the capital expenditure was about 43 per cent. Mr Iheanacho’s complaint
was that the Finance ministry released only 50 per cent of the
ministry’s 2010 capital budget, because of the shortfall in the
country’s revenue, though the recurrent and overhead budgets were
released and fully expended.

Prudent management

However, Mr Aganga,
explained that the decision to slice the ministries and agencies’
budget is part of the measures being pursued by government to ensure
discipline and prudence in the management of the country’s finances.

“The truth is that
Nigeria is not broke. The question that one needs to ask is: The ones
that they (ministries) got last year, have they used it? Or how well
did they use it? There is no doubt that the country is making more oil
revenue today because commodity prices are going up. But what one
should know is that we are running a deficit budget, which is the
highest ever budget in the history of the country.

“Besides, this is
an expansionary budget because of what government is doing. We must
learn to live within our means. What government is doing is trying to
reduce the huge cost of running business, by emphasising fiscal
discipline and prudence, without necessarily compromising quality in
the implementation of the budget.” Mr Aganga said. During the recent
presentation of the overview of the 2011 budget by President Goodluck
Jonathan, the finance minister pointed out that this year’s budget was
underpinned by the four pillars upon which the country’s economic
growth strategy and government’s reform agenda rests.

Apart from the
determination to make Nigerians feel the tangible benefits of the
country’s economic growth, the minister said government will optimise
necessary capital spending by rationalising recurrent expenditure,
while accelerating the reforms to enhance the quality and efficiency of
public expenditure as well as promote greater prudence in the
management of the nation’s financial resources.

The minister had
argued before the law makers that government was withholding funds from
those ministries that did not show sufficient capacity to utilise past
releases, with some of them accounting for as low as 23.3 percent
implementation of the budget.

“Government has
been very lousy with budget implementation. This is a failed budget of
a failing nation,” observed Bukar Abba Ibrahim, a senator, who claimed
that a cut in the capital budget of the ministries was suggestive that
the nation cannot afford it.

“Why would the
Finance ministry not be able to cash back the capital budget of the
2010 appropriation, despite the claim by the Finance minister that the
country is buoyant enough to fund government’s business and considering
that crude oil price has been stable above the budgeted benchmark?” Mr
Ibrahim noted.