N19.76trn budget presentation: Presidency battles padding by MDAs
…Announces N720bn borrowing plan
…Reps commence process of scrapping MDAs
By Moses Adeniyi
Less than 48 hours to the presentation of the proposed 2023 N19.76trillion budget to the National Assembly on Friday, the Presidency is still battling with padding by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). This is to avoid controversy in the last budget to be presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly on Friday October 7, 2022.
Padding the budget is an accounting strategy that entails making the budget proposal higher than actual expenses in a fiscal year.
Recall that in August, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed Ahmed, had disclosed that the Federal Government seeks a total budget size of N19.76trillion for 2023.
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, while reading a letter from the President to lawmakers on Tuesday, had said the presentation of the appropriation bill to the joint session of the National Assembly would be held at the temporary chamber of the House of Representatives, which he said would accommodate all 469 federal lawmakers of the National Assembly, the President, and his entourage.
However, information as at Wednesday, revealed that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was still battling with sorting and adjusting the proposed budget less than 48 hours to the presentation schedule -an indication which may not be unconnected with checking hard to avoid infractions in the proposed draft with fraudulent cases of duplications which have become a common practice recently.
This is as the Presidency disclosed on Wednesday, that the N19.76trn Appropriation Bill for the 2023 fiscal year would undergo more adjustments before being presented to the National Assembly on Friday.
Addressing State House correspondents after the Wednesday FEC meeting presided over by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said the council “discussed extensively” the Appropriation Bill.
“It was discussed extensively and there were inputs. Whichever inputs need to be reflected before Friday will be done. And then it will be presented to the National Assembly,” he said.
According to the President’s spokesman, parts of the Bill undergoing adjustment include issues of the revised 2023-2025 fiscal framework, expenditure profile, budget proposal, aggregate expenditure, overhead costs, personnel cost, and capital expenditure, among others.
Adesina, who did not reveal the specific details of the modifications to the Bill, noted that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, will give a bill breakdown only after Buhari’s presentation to the National Assembly.
“We will not have the traditional briefing of what happened at the council because it’s about a budget that will be presented on Friday morning.
“We want to give the National Assembly the honour of receiving it first. It was virtually a one-item Federal Executive Council meeting in which the budget proposals for 2023 were presented and discussed at length.
“That budget proposal will be taken to the National Assembly on Friday morning by Mr. President. So, it would not be proper to discuss the contents of what will be officially presented on Friday.
“Yes, you know, usually, after the budget has been presented, there will be a breakdown by the Minister of Finance. So, it will not be proper to unveil what has not been taken to the National Assembly.
“So, all those things have been discussed and where they needed to tweak some of the projections, that has been done. The President will present the final approved copy on Friday.
“My brief is to inform you that the budget was discussed at length — all the details. But as a mark of respect for the National Assembly who will receive it on Friday, it is not prudent to begin to give out this information,” he explained.
Incidence of “budget padding” has recently featured significantly in successive appropriation bills of the Federal Government, escaping the oversight of the Presidency and the Parliament.
Nigerian NewsDirect had reported that the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and other related offences (ICPC) disclosed in September that the 2021 and 2022 budgets were padded by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government with duplicated projects to the tune of N400billion.
The breakdown of the padding revealed the N13.59trillion 2021 budget was padded by N300billion, while the running N17.12trillion 2022 budget was padded with N100billion duplicated projects.
In addition, a sum of N49.9billion inserted as salaries for ghost workers fictitiously scheduled for the first half of 2022 (January and June this year) was discovered by the antigraft agency.
…Reps commence process of scrapping, merging MDAs
Meanwhile, as MDAs continue to bear reflections of duplications which recently have clogged up national budgets with padding infractions, the House of Representatives has commenced the process of scrapping and merging some MDAs of the Federal Government.
This is as the lower chamber has mandated its “Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Duplication of Functions of Agencies of the Federal Government commencing the move to reduce the cost of governance and ensure efficiency.”
The committee has consequently invited some affected MDAs to appear before it to justify why they should remain in existence and as individual entities.
At its inaugural investigative hearing in Abuja on Tuesday, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the National Council for Arts and Culture, the National Gallery of Art and the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation appeared before the committee.
Chairman of the committee, Victor Danzaria, stated that the lawmakers were on the course to determine which MDAs should be recommended for scrapping or merger.
He said, “We have agencies, some doing the job of the other. Some are intervening agencies, their lifespans have expired but they are still there and the government is still maintaining them by budgetary allocation.
“It is a waste for this country. We are looking at areas where we (can) shrink governance but increase productivity.
“This committee also has a mandate of assessing, ascertaining and doing a root-cause analysis of regular bickering among some established agencies.
“We found out that some of these agencies have duplication of functions. The National Assembly makes enabling laws for all these agencies. We are looking at your mandates: what are you supposed to deliver for this country?
“And when there is bickering between agencies, there is overlap, there is also duplication of functions. This committee was set up to look at your mandates and enabling Acts. Are you executing them? Are you effectively helping the government to deliver good governance in this country?
“The other mandate of this committee is to establish areas of mergers, synergy and justification of existence of these agencies. Like I said, duplication of functions and overlapping could be there. But are they coming in the form of synergy? Do we look at merger of these agencies to enable the government to fund these organisations effectively?” he queried.
“Every year, the President asks the National Assembly for permission to obtain loans to maintain these agencies. So, it is our responsibility in this National Assembly to make sure that the enabling Acts of all those agencies are there and that is why they exist,” he noted.
Recall that the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, had on June 29, 2022, inaugurated the committee, while the House had on March 2, 2022, resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to “investigate duplication of duties, overlapping functions and counter-productivity of established agencies, departments, boards, parastatals and corporations in the country.”
The committee was mandated to conduct a “root-cause analysis” of the regular bickering among some established bodies under the Federal Government.
Also, the committee was to establish “areas of mergers, synergies and justification of the existence of some established agencies, departments, boards, parastatals and corporations, which are no longer needed in the country,” and report back to the House within six weeks for further legislative action.
The move is based on a motion moved by the Majority Whip, Mohammed Monguno, titled ‘Need to Investigate the Duplication of Functions of Agencies of the Federal Government.’
Under grilling on Wednesday, by the committee, the Director-General, NCAC, Otunba Segun Runsewe, giving justification for his Agency, solicited for more powers to regulate reality programmes such as the Big Brother Nigeria.
He also recalled how he went after popular cross-dresser, Idris Okuneye, popular known as Bobrisky.
A member of the committee, Alex Egbonna, had expressed concerns that the BBN, an annual show organised by South African-based MultiChoice, owners of cable television service provider, DSTV, was showing nudity and other contents alien to the Nigerian culture.
…FG announces N720bn borrowing plan
Meanwhile, amidst outcries over the deficits of the proposed N19.76tn 2023 budget, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has released the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds Issuance Calendar for the fourth quarter of 2022 with a N720 billion borrowing plan for the period.
Breakdown of the calendar revealed that on Oct. 17, the DMO will re-open a 14.55 per cent, April 2029 bond valued at between N70billion and N80billion, with six years, six months term-to-maturity and an original tenor of 10 years.
The office, it was contained in the calendar, will also re-open a 12.50 per cent, April 2032 FGN bond valued at between N70billion to N80billion, with a term-to-maturity of nine years, six months, and original tenor of 10 years.
On the same date, the DMO will re-open a 16.24. 2037 FGN bond, valued at between N70billion and N80billion, with term-to-maturity of 14 years, six months, and original tenor of 20 years.
On Nov. 14, the DMO will, again, re-open the 14.55 per cent, April 2029 FGN bond valued at between N70billion and N80billion, with term-to-maturity of six years, five months.
Also, on Nov. 14, it will re-open the 12.50 per cent, April 2032 FGN bond valued at between N70billion and N80billion, with term-to-maturity of nine years, five months.
On the same date, (Nov. 14), the office will also re-open the 16.24, April 2037 FGN bond valued at between N70billion and N80billion, with term-to-maturity of 14 years, five months.
On Dec. 12, the DMO will re-open the 14.55 per cent FGN bond valued at between N70billion and N80billion, now with six years, four months term-to-maturity.
Also, on Dec. 12, it will re-open the 12.50, April 2032 FGN bond, valued at between N70billion and N80billion, with term-to-maturity of nine years, four months.
Again, on Dec. 12, it will re-open the 16.24 per cent FGN bond valued at between N70billion and N80billion, with term-to-maturity of 14 years, four months.
Outcries over rising debt prolife have left stakeholders with fears of the impacts on the nation’s economy, particularly as the burden of debt servicing has recently began to attract record of over 90 percent of the Federal Government’s revenue.
