CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE 2024 BUDGET…1
The National Assembly should ensure a thorough examination of the budget
Presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly two weeks ago, President Bola Tinubu sounded upbeat. The budget, he promised, “will go further than ever before in cementing macro-economic stability, reducing the deficit, increasing capital spending and allocation to reflect the eight priority areas of this administration.” By the time the details were out, not many Nigerians can share his optimism. How a government that plans to spend 30 per cent of total aggregate expenditure on debt service, and most of the rest on what appears to be frivolities is going to renew the hopes of millions of traumatised and pauperised Nigerians is yet to be seen.
To begin with, many analysts have expressed concern about the integrity of the figures in the 2024 budget estimates. BudgIT, a leading civic-tech organisation promoting transparency, accountability, and effective service delivery in Nigeria has cited an unacceptable difference. “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,” according to BudgIT.
The organisation also alluded to duplications in some allocations. While the federal government made provisions for a cumulative sum of N8 billion (N4 billion each) through the 2023 supplementary budget for the renovation of the President’s official quarters in Aso Rock Villa and Dodan Barracks, an additional N500 million has been re-allocated to the renovation of the president’s quarters in Aso Rock Villa, with N5 billion earmarked for the renovation of the president’s quarters in Dodan Barracks. Also, the Vice President’s quarters in Lagos and Abuja, which got a cumulative sum of N6.5 billion in the 2023 supplementary budget for renovation, equally got allocations of N4 billion and N300 million, each in the 2024 budget. Besides, there is another vote of N10 billion to “digitise” those quarters curiously domiciled in the office of the Chief of Staff.
While presenting highlights of the N27.5 trillion proposals, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun stated that the 2024 Budget was prepared against the backdrop of challenging global and domestic economic environment. Some of the challenging domestic concerns he highlighted are public debt sustainability, an elevated inflation, tough business environment buffeted by acute infrastructure deficit, forex crisis, an embarrassing depreciation of the local currency as well as insecurity, among others. There is nothing in the projections to suggest that the Tinubu administration took these concerns into account before coming up with spending priorities.
We note with concern the Service-wide Vote, which was established as a contingency fund to address unforeseen circumstances and events. It has increased exponentially in recent years from N198.95 billion (2.18 per cent of the budget) in 2018 to N4.41 trillion (16.03 per cent of the budget) in 2024. Over the years, Service-wide votes have created loopholes for sleaze and corrupt tendencies. Budget implementation reports often contain no information on how Service wide votes are utilised. In the 2024 budget proposals, the Service-wide vote envelope Appropriation bill contains N108 billion for “special projects” with the project code “ERGPQ213044.” Minders of the budget need to explain what this “ERGPQ213044” stands for since the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, a medium-term economic strategy under the Buhari administration ran between 2016 and 2020.
Overall, the National Assembly should recognise the pivotal role of a budget as a government policy instrument and conduct a thorough examination. As many have argued, a comprehensive review that prioritises broad-based economic growth, reduces inequality, addresses poverty, tackles insecurity, bridges Nigeria’s infrastructure gap, and invests in human capital development should be uppermost in the minds of every selfless public servant at a time like this. It is therefore our hope that these frivolous items will not escape the scrutiny of the National Assembly, the arm of government which statutorily has the power of the purse. To enhance its moral authority in discharging this onerous responsibility, the National Assembly also needs to be transparent about its own vote.
