Group wants law to check budget Delays

Group wants law to check budget Delays

Posted by Sylvester on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 0

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The Centre for Social Justice on Monday called on the Federal Government to commence the process of enacting a new Public Finance Management Act to address the incessant delays that had characterised the country’s budgeting process.

The Lead Director, CSJ, Mr. Eze Onyekpere, said this while addressing journalists in Abuja on the negative impact, which the delay in signing the 2016 budget, was causing the country.

Nigeria has been experiencing delays in its budget process since the return to democratic rule in 1999 owing to power tussle between the executive and the legislature.

For instance, the 2011 budget was passed on March 25, 2011, while that of 2012 was passed on March 14 of the same year.

For the 2013 budget, it was passed by the lawmakers on December 20, 2012 and signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2013, while the 2014 and 2015 budgets were also signed by Jonathan in the month of May of the respective years.

But Onyekpere said the proposed Act would guide the timely approval of the budget estimates by the National Assembly, set the ground rules for budgeting, including timeframes, and when a project or activity would be due for inclusion in the budget.

The proposed law, according to him, will also define the framework for the engagement of stakeholders in the budget preparation as well as approval processes.

He said, “Lessons need to be learnt from this budget fiasco and this challenge will now be converted into an opportunity.

“There is a need for effective legislative collaboration in the preparation and approval of the budget, which may necessitate the amendment of Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution, and enactment of a new Public Finance Management Act, which sets the rules for budgeting timeframes.

“In the legislature, it is also imperative that the ground rules for the approval of budgets be streamlined and modified so that no set of members of the National Assembly should be in a position to alter the consensus of the majority.”

Onyekpere also called on the executive to prepare a coherent policy framework and strategy across the sectors to guide future budgeting, since according to him, the country “seems to be lacking a policy direction.”