Budget Implementation: Senate Threatens To Arrest Okonjo-Iweala

A brewing face-off between the executive and the legislature over the implementation of the 2012 budget worsened yesterday with the Senate threatening to order the arrest of the coordinating minister of the economy and minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, unless she appears before it to defend the 2012 budget releases and utilisation.
An obviously incensed Senate threatened to use all means necessary to mandate the coordinating minister to appear before it on Thursday.
The senators also faulted claims by the minister that the budget has attained 56 per cent performance, insisting that the performance level is as low as 21.56 per cent.
Speaking at an interactive session on the budget, Senate president David Mark, who was represented by his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, lambasted the executive for accusing the National Assembly of tampering with the budget and thus making its full implementation impossible.
The presence of former president of the Senate and now secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, minister of state for finance, minister of transport, director-general of the Budget Office and auditor-general at the interactive session could not sway the lawmakers to spare Okonjo-Iweala.
Mark lamented that the absence of Okonjo-Iweala was a major setback to the appraisal of the budget performance so far. He said: “We had expected the minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy to be here today because she is central to all that we are going to discuss here today as our chairman on appropriation had mentioned, this matter was supposed to be discussed last week but the Minister was unavoidably absent.
“We learnt that she went to Asaba to declare open a SURE-P programme. We consider our meeting with her on an issue that has to do with budget implementation to be more important than any other assignment.
“Today we have also been told that she’s gone to London to represent the president on an investment forum for which we know there are other ministers and government officials that could as well have done that to enable her to be here with us this afternoon.
“Now the stage is set, but the minister is not here and we are worried about it. So, it will be absolutely impossible for us to do this dialogue with the absence of the coordinating minister of the economy. I have discussed with my colleagues and what we intend to do now is to allow our committee on appropriation to look for an appropriate date, possibly by Thursday, and ensure that the minister comes.
“Even if it needs summoning her to ensure that she appears before the committee to tell Nigerians the degree of releases and, of course, for the SGF to tell Nigerians the degree of utilisation by MDAs. It’s not just enough that releases were made.
“We want to see whether those releases and utilisation are impacting on Nigerians. We want to see it in roads, we want to see the water projects going on, we want to see the electricity projects going on. We have appropriated N1trn for security situation in the country. We want to see whether they have been released and whether they are utilised. That’s exactly what we thought this public hearing will afford all of us today. So for now we are disappointed that it’s not going to take place.
“I have the mandate of my colleagues to adjourn this public hearing to enable the minister of finance and coordinating minister to show up and, as I said, the chairman of the committee on appropriation should take immediate steps including if possible summoning the minister to show up before the Senate Committee on Appropriation and other relevant committees by Thursday, this week.
“So this public hearing is adjourned to Thursday at the same time and the minister for finance is expected to be there no matter the circumstance. We have to do everything possible to get her to be here on Thursday by 1pm.
“It is regrettable that she is not here. I recall that when the 2012 budget was presented to us as a draft bill, we in the NASS decided that we are going to do everything possible to send it back to the executive the way it came, so that there will be no argument on whether it will be implemented or not, because over the years we’ve had this issue of non-implementation of the budget, and the reason or whatever reason they give surrounds the area of NASS, input; so we decided that we are going to make minimal input if there’s need to make any input at all.
“So, on the basis of this we returned the budget the way it came and even when we identified the areas on which some adjustments needed to be made, we had to bend over at the risk of being accused of tampering with the budget.
“We had to do that to ensure that they received the budget the way and manner they wanted it so that the implementation would be much easier.
“Unfortunately the level of implementation has been anything less than commendable and that’s why we are worried.
“One of the excuses we’ve read from the pages of newspapers for non-performance of the budget is what they considered as the tinkering of the budget by the National Assembly.
“And so what we had wanted to do today is to hear from the executive what those tinkering are. Let us hear and let the people of Nigeria hear what the NASS did to the budget that made it impossible for it to be implemented so that our committee chairmen here would have the opportunity of responding. So it is not enough for the executive or the minister of finance to accuse the NASS of tampering with the budget that made it impossible for it to be implemented and then NASS is saying no, it is not so.
“So we decided a situation where the press will be the arbiter and then they will listen to us and the executive and then know where it went wrong if it did. And if there are areas that the NASS should be blamed, the Nigerian public should hear, and if they have response from the NASS, our appropriate committees should also respond.”
Earlier the chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Ahmed Maccido, said the 2012 budget performance was pegged at 21.56 per cent, contrary to claims by the finance minister that the budget has attained 56 percent.
Sen. Maccido said the basic idea behind the interaction was to identify where the problems lie in budget implementation.
Said he: “We are in the third quarter of the year and expecting discussions on the conceptualisation of the 2013 Appropriation Bill. Yet, we are at a loss on the level of performance of the 2012 Appropriation Act. We wish to know where the problem lies. When the cause of an ailment is known, the saying goes, the solution is near.”
We stand by our figures
– Finance Ministry
But the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) has in its reaction to the development, insist that the 56 per cent budget implementation figure remains correct having done its homework correctly.
A reliable source at the ministry, who pleaded anonymity, explained that the 56 per cent was based on the N324 billion cash-backed budget and not on the entire N1.3 trillion capital expenditure.
The source said, “We have done our home work properly. We are not claiming anything we have not done. The percentage of cash-backed portion of the 2012 capital budget of n1.3 trillion implemented is 56 per cent.”
Culled: Leadership

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