President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the N21.8 trillion 2023 budget into law.
Buhari made the disclosure in a live broadcast on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.
The President said the signing will avoid delay in the 2023 budget implementation.
He urged the National Assembly to reconsider the decision on his administration’s N23.7 trillion ‘ways and means’ loan request.
Also, Buhari tasked Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and institutions of government to gear up the revenue generation process.
“As this administration draws to a close, we will accelerate the implementation of critical measures aimed at further improving the Nigeria business environment and ensuring the welfare of our people,” he stated.
Earlier, the Senate passed the budget for the 2023 fiscal year.
The budget was increased from N20.5 trillion, presented by Buhari in October, to N21.8 trillion.
Senate Committee Uncovers ‘Mystery’ N10.8 Billion Inserted Into Defence Ministry’s Budget
The Senate Committee on Defence on Thursday, November 17, 2022, uncovered N10.8 billion insertion in the 2023 budget proposal of the Ministry of Defence.
The committee queried the minister, Bashir Magashi, on the issue during the budget defence.
The vice chairman of the committee, Senator Istifanus Gyang, said: “Hon. Minister, in the proposed 2023 budget of your ministry, N8.6 billion is discovered to have been allocated for purchase of military hardware and N2.25 billion for Safe School Initiative.
“The two items, when critically viewed, were not supposed to be in the ministry’s budget since hardware procurements are done by the Army, Navy and Air Force; and the Safe School Initiative, by the Federal Ministry of Education.
“These, to us, are duplications of budgetary votes which require explanations from you,” he said.
Responding, Magashi sought the permission of the committee for the permanent secretary of the ministry Ibrahim Abubakar Kana, to respond.
Kana said the sums were inserted into the ministry‘s budget by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
“We didn’t initiate it. We didn’t include it. From our consultations, we found out that it’s from the finance ministry.
“We found out that these projects have been with the Ministry of Education and they now realised that they should actually be under the Ministry of Defence because they’re products of insurgency and therefore the defence ministry is better positioned to do the job compared to the education ministry. I don’t think there’s any duplication,” he said.
The committee’s chairman, Senator Aliyu Wamakko, said the insertion would be expunged from the ministry’s budget.
2023 Budget: N424 Billion ‘Padding’ Discovered In Finance Ministry Budget
The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning is on the spot over the alleged insertion of projects amounting to N423.8 billion in the 2023 budget proposal of some ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, Daily Trust reports.
Federal lawmakers have raised concerns about the abuse of the budget process following submissions by some government agencies that some amounts were inserted into their estimates without their knowledge allegedly by the ministry of finance.
Officials from the National Universities Commission, NUC, Ministries of Defence, Power and Humanitarian Affairs, during ongoing National Assembly budget hearings, disowned some line items running into billions of naira in their 2023 budget proposals.
They told lawmakers that they could not explain what the sums are meant for or the details of the projects tied to the funds since they were not part of their proposals sent to the finance ministry for the 2023 fiscal year. They blamed the finance ministry for inserting the money into their budgets.
But the finance ministry denied padding up the budget for any agency, saying the proposals as submitted by the ministries, departments, and agencies is what President Muhammadu Buhari presented to the National Assembly.
Civil society organisations have urged the National Assembly to be vigilant and ensure that all suspicious budget items are expunged from the fiscal document before it is passed.
Budgeting process
In preparing the federal government budget, all agencies, using the guidelines and budget ceiling, prepare and submit their estimates for the next fiscal year to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
The ministry, after review, aggregates the budget in the form of consolidated estimates of revenue and expenditure and then sends it to the president for approval.
The president on receipt of the proposal as approved by the budget and planning ministry present the draft estimate to the Federal Executive Council for further consideration and approval after which the draft estimate is sent to the National Assembly in form of an appropriation bill.
The padding allegation
Amid these processes, some line items are said to be inserted into the fiscal estimates without the consent of the supposed beneficiary agencies, resulting in duplication of projects or excess budgetary allocations, with the opportunity for the quiet looting of the public coffers.
In most cases, the agencies concerned are silent about the insertions called budget padding except when they are detected by lawmakers during budget scrutiny.
Source: Daily Post
