By Stanley Onyeka, Lagos
BudgIT, a civic-tech organisation promoting transparency and accountability in Nigeria, has condemned National Assembly’s (NASS) extension of the federal government’s 2023 National Budget and Supplementary Budget implementation period to December 31, 2024.
On the request of President Bola Tinubu, the two chambers in their separate emergency sessions, Thursday, extended the implementation of the 2023 Appropriation Act of N21.83 trillion, and the N2.17 trillion 2023 Supplementary Budget to December 31, 2024, to facilitate the completion of proposed projects.
This is the second time the President had requested the extension of the implementation of the 2023 budget signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2023.
But describing the development as “worrisome”, BudgIT’s Country Director, Gabriel Okeowo, in a statement, said: “more worrisome is the fact that the Federal Government is currently drafting another 2024 Supplementary budget, which it intends to implement alongside the 2023 Approved Budget, 2023 Supplementary Budget and 2024 Approved Budget.”
This, he said, will result “in the simultaneous implementation of four budgets—an anomaly with no precedence.”
Mr. Okeowo continued: “Standard practice should be that projects not catered to within a fiscal year are rolled over to the budget of a new fiscal year.
“The concurrent implementation of four budgets will lead to severe budget credibility issues, as revenues projected in 2024 alone would most likely be used in implementing four different budgets, negatively impacting service delivery in critical social sectors and the provision of essential public infrastructure.
“If allowed to be implemented, the practice would convert Nigeria’s annual budget into a biennial one, a practice neither provided for by the 1999 Constitution nor the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.”
Besides, BudgIT identified many frivolous items in the approved 2023 Budget and 2023 Supplementary Budget that would compete with essential projects in the 2024 Budget for the meagre resources available to the Federal Government.
If allowed to be implemented, the practice would convert Nigeria’s annual budget into a biennial one, a practice neither provided for by the 1999 Constitution nor the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.
Against this backdrop, it called on the National Assembly to return the budget cycle to the January-December period.
“…we call on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to amend the complications of this convoluted budgeting system and return to a disciplined January to December Budget Calendar.
It also noted that for a brief period, Nigeria returned to the January – December budget calendar in 2019 but retrogressed from the 2020 fiscal year.
“It routinely extended the implementation period for the capital budgets beyond 12 calendar months — a practice that negates the principle of annuity of public budgets,” it added.
BudgIT therefore urged the Federal Government “to identify and implement only the projects and programs that align with Nigeria’s overarching development goals, reduce inequality, and improve the lives of citizens, the bulk of whom are multidimensionally poor.”
