Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and its partners in the Citizens Wealth Platform (CWP) have identified a total of Two Hundred and Nineteen Billion, Three Hundred and Seventy Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty Nine Naira, and Forty Kobo Only as resources to be saved and reprogrammed by the National Assembly in the 2018 budget proposal.
A statement signed by Eze Onyekpere Esq Convener, CWP said “huge vote of N51.750 billion for SDGs calls for vigilance and proper oversight on the part of the legislature after approval. For over thirteen years, this type of vote had been approved without Nigerians getting value and improvement in their lives for the large sums of money. Approving votes must not be done for the fun of it. Some MDAs simply played on words like “empowerment”, “capacity building” and “human capital development” to request for large sums of money. But the word empowerment is devoid of specificity, it is hanging and must be contextualised.
“Also, capacity building ought to be done within the context of developing specific competencies. Again, there are many requests for research and development which are hanging and not specifically tied to any deliverables. The proposals of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are suffused with large sums of money without specifics and details and if not properly clarified, Nigerians will be in the dark as to what these sums of money are voted for. Promotion and development of rice value chain for instance, states nothing about the activities, goods and services to be delivered with billions of Naira. This means that citizens cannot be reasonably expected to monitor projects they do not know about. This is not a good way to craft a budget. Transparency which leads to accountability is imperative to make these proposals reasonable.
Nigeria is still planning to build a nuclear power plant but we lack the capacity to manage a nuclear power plant. This is coming at a time major world powers are decommissioning their nuclear power plants. It makes no sense and it is suicidal to continue this quest.
“We hope that NASS will do the needful for the common good. on a yearly basis identified frivolous, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful expenditures in Federal Appropriation Bills. The documentation is sent to every member of the National Assembly to assist the passage of the annual budget. The term frivolous implies not having any serious purpose or value as some of the expenditure proposals cannot be supported by any high level national plan or policy. They ignore the pressing problems and challenges while providing for the fancy, whims and caprices of the budget crafters.
“Inappropriate provisions focus on their not being suitable or proper in the circumstances. These provisions cannot meet policy goals declared by the government. Unclear provisions are deliberately crafted by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to deceive the uninitiated. They are made to confuse and most times, do not have any fixed meaning and they are without clear activities, services, goods, construction and deliverables that any reasonable person can understand. Wasteful expenditure on the other hand contributes nothing to the general welfare but rather incurs loss to the Treasury.
“In the age of “Buy Made in Nigeria”, most MDAs are insistent on buying foreign products and brands and even have the temerity to put the foreign brands in the budget when there are equally good locally made alternatives. This is more pronounced in the quest for foreign SUVs. Huge proposals for cleaning and fumigation and subscription to professional bodies which could be done for less than 50% of the requested sums were discovered whilst the annual ritual of buying computers and computer software was common. This raises the posers; should the government be buying computers and software every year? What happened to previously acquired computers and software? At the State House, Presidential Villa, there are large requests for annual maintenance, repairs and rehabilitation far in excess of the reasonable needs of the Villa. This tradition is followed by a number of MDAs.
