Senate: No Pending Foreign Loan Request

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

Contrary to the impression created by the executive that the implementation of the capital component of the 2017 budget was being hampered by the National Assembly’s delay in approving the federal government’s external borrowing plan, the Senate Thursday said there was no pending foreign loan request from the executive before it.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and her Budget and National Planning counterpart, Senator Udo Udoma, while briefing the Joint Senate Committee on Appropriation and Finance on Tuesday had urged the National Assembly to accelerate approval of the executive’s request for foreign loans.

This they had said was necessary to ensure that the N2.1 trillion capital budget was adequately funded at a time the government is trying to sustain the momentum as the economy attempts to shrug off the recession.

But the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, speaking at plenary Thursday, said there was no loan request from the executive that had not been treated by the lawmakers, adding that any pending request was concluded before the National Assembly embarked on its annual recess last July.

“Let me clarify this, because I was informed by the Chairman of Appropriation (Senator Danjuma Goje) that when the Minister of Finance came, she suggested that there were some requests before us on external borrowing.

“I just want to make it clear that there is no request on external borrowing that has not been acted upon.
“It must be that the letters have not left the executive to come to us. I think it is important that we don’t delay such an important issue.

“If you remember, at the end of last session, on the last day we treated requests from the states and those on the railways. There are no pending requests from Mr. President, or when he was away, from the acting president on external loan,” Saraki said.

His pronouncement was prompted by the consideration of the report of the Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance on the implementation of the 2017 budget.

“The executive claimed it is awaiting the resolution of the National Assembly on external borrowings to enable them borrow to finance part of the capital component of the budget. This is because external debts have longer tenures and lower interest rate,” the report read.

However, in adopting the recommendations of the report, the Senate noted that the fiscal year could be restored to the January-December cycle for the 2018 budget without rolling over up to 60 per cent of the projects contained in the 2017 budget.

Udoma had told the joint committee on Tuesday that his ministry had already informed government agencies to roll over between 50-60 percent of 2017 capital projects into the 2018 budget.

“Much as there is need to work with the executive to return to a predictable January-December budget cycle, this should be done without sacrificing up to 60 per cent of a full year’s capital budget in one full-swoop,” the report added.

Saraki further cautioned that with the plan to roll over the projects to next year, the 2018 budget might be as high as N10 trillion.

Other recommendations of the committee which were adopted included “that necessary steps be taken to ensure that the executive does not embark on selective implementation under the guise of completing priority projects because it will offend the spirit of the Appropriation Act”.

The lawmakers also urged the government to explore the use of operating surpluses from agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to fund the budget.

But the resolution on the report prompted a query to the Ad Hoc Committee on Alleged Misuse, Under Remittances of IGR by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.
Addressing the chairman of the committee, Senator Adeola Olamilekan, Saraki asked for the report of the committee.

“We had a committee under Senator Adeola Olamilekan on this revenue (matter), I don’t know what happened to the report. The committee we set up for internally generated revenue (probe), I have not gotten its report yet.

“This matter is now urgent and important because based on the recommendations we have agreed here, it is going to affect 2018 budget and 2017 budget implementation.

“Whatever it takes, you need to dedicate time and let us have a report, at least on these three agencies within the next one week or two weeks maximum,” he said.
Responding, Olamilekan said the committee had requested that the MDAs submit their audited financial reports.

“On the issue of agencies of government to explore using their operating surpluses for financing the budget, I want to bring to the notice of the Senate that just eight of these agencies constitute 80 per cent of the operational surpluses.

“However, most of these agencies hide under frivolous expenditure items to take out these operational surpluses and pay peanuts to the government.

“You will not find the Central Bank of Nigeria carrying out the functions of the federal government – like a government within a government. We asked them yesterday to furnish us with more documents so that we can have a full-fledged report on the CBN, NIMASA and NPA.

“On the issue of NPA, we have an agency that is operating in isolation. This is one agency that has taken me aback. How can an agency generate over N170 billion in a year and come to you to say that over N140 billion has been expended the same year. Where is the money they are going to pay into government coffers?” Olamilekan asked.

He however assured the Senate that an interim report would be submitted next week.
Meanwhile, the Senate referred the N135 billion virement request of the executive to the Committee on Appropriation.

The executive, in July 2017, had requested virement of the amount within the 2017 budget.
The request was however almost rejected as several lawmakers argued against it.

While the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said virement is not contained in the constitution and was therefore unconstitutional, Senator Dino Melaye argued that it was too early in the life of the 2017 budget to request virement.

Saraki however appealed to the lawmakers to allow the request to be sent to the committee.
“Before virement can be considered, the Senate should have seen a more significant level of implementation. But this is in line with the Senate’s commitment to give support to the executive as much as possible within the law,” Saraki argued.

On the basis of his position, the virement request was referred to the Appropriation Committee for consideration and approval.