BudgIT, a leading civic-tech organisation promoting transparency, accountability, and effective service delivery in Nigeria, has raised questions over the proposed 2024 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to BudgIT, “Recall that in August 2023, we itemised ten plagues that the Tinubu administration should avoid in the 2024 budget and budget process to ensure value for money, curb expenditure inefficiency and waste, enforce accountability, and put Nigeria on the pathway of prosperity, economic growth, and development.
“Unfortunately, having reviewed the proposed 2024 Appropriation Bill breakdown, we observed that the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has continued with some deleterious budget practices from previous regimes that have fostered corruption, underdevelopment, unemployment, and multidimensional poverty.
“One significant observation is the absence of crucial budget breakdowns from the National Assembly, Government-Owned Enterprises, and some Ministry Departments and Agencies in the 2024 budget proposal. For instance, there is no breakdown of the National Assembly, the Niger Delta Development Commission and the North East Development Commission’s budget.
“For emphasis, the budgets of key revenue generating government entities— including the Nigeria Ports Authority, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPM), to mention a few—are conspicuously missing from the proposed 2024 budget presented to the National Assembly.
“Furthermore, the proposed budget’s total sum is N24.08 trillion, indicating a discrepancy of N3.42 trillion compared to the N27.5 trillion aggregate budget presented. We suspect that the difference above comprises the aggregate budgets of the Government-Owned Enterprises. To this effect, the Government-Owned Enterprises’ proposed revenue and expenditures require disaggregation. The revenues and expenditures of several Government-Owned Enterprises have historically been absent from formal budget presentations.
“Former President Muhammadu Buhari promised to ensure not only the budgets of all MDAs and GOEs are present in the annual appropriation bill but also that their budgets are defended and assented to publicly. This was not implemented before the end of his tenure, and the Tinubu administration has carried on in this regard. This also indicates the need for more Government-Owned Enterprises’ budget implementation reports.
“A detailed analysis of the budget also reveals duplications in allocations, particularly in renovating the President’s and Vice President’s quarters. The Federal Government made provisions for a cumulative sum of N8 billion (N4 billion each) through the 2023 supplementary budget for renovating the President’s official quarters in Aso Rock Villa and Dodan Barracks.
“Surprisingly, an additional N500 million has been allocated to the renovation of the President’s quarters in Aso Rock Villa, even as N5 billion has been earmarked for the renovation of the President’s quarters in Dodan Barracks. Similarly, the Vice President’s quarters in Lagos and Abuja, which got a cumulative sum of N5.5 billion in the 2023 supplementary budget for renovation, equally got allocations of N4 billion, N300 million, and N5 billion each in the 2024 budget.”
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