The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed on Monday dismissed reports on the allegations bothering on budget padding of N849.758 billion and N1.771 trillion multilateral and bilateral loans proposed in the 2023 budget estimate being considered by the National Assembly.
The minister who appeared before the House Committee on Appropriations chaired by Hon. Aliyu Betara at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, also gave insights into other misinformation on the N206.242 billion ($473.5 million World Bank funding) for National Social Safety Nets Projects – Scale Up (NSSNP-SU) for Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster management & Social Development; N8.600 billion for refurbishment and procurement of Harris RF-5/7800 Military Communication Equipment as well as N2.250 billion Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) allegedly inserted into the budget estimates of Federal Ministry of Defence.
Other allegations include N195.465 billion allegedly inserted into the budget estimate of Federal Ministry of Power; N12.304 billion ($30 million World Bank fund) allegedly inserted into the budget estimate of Federal Ministry of Education for the Second Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence for Development Impact Project.
While stressing that the “current issues would have been easily clarified between the respective MDAs and the FMFBNP had the affected agencies followed the established budget processes,” the Minister disclosed that the “proposed 2023 budget for each Ministry was circulated for review and feedback, then presented at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) before it was submitted to National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It is noteworthy that the total amount of multilateral/bilateral loan-funded projects included in the 2023 budget is N1,771,404,182,322, involving a total of 14 implementing ministries.
“The aggregate projected multilateral/bilateral loan drawdown and expenditure of N1,771,404,182,322 is shown on Lines 271 and 301 of the MTEF/FSP approved by FEC and presented to NASS. It is also shown on Lines 182 – 195 on page 12 of the 2023 Appropriation Bill.
“So far, no issues have been raised in relation to the multilateral /bilateral loan-funded projects by the other ministries.
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“It is evident that there are internal coordination issues between the PIUs in some MDAs and the CEOs/Accounting officers of the implementing ministries. We will be taking necessary actions to ensure that this is addressed going forward
“Finally, let me state clearly that the allegation that the FMNBNP ‘padded’ the budgets of the affected MDAs by inserting the projects in question makes absolutely no sense. If the projects are in the budgets of these MDAs, the FMBNP cannot procure them, as their procurement can only be handled by the concerned MDAs.
“Specifically, for multilateral/bilateral funded projects, the PIUs are domiciled in the designated implementing MDAs, and the lenders will not deal with any other agency, including FMBNP, on their procurements,” she noted.
While addressing the Minister, Hon. Betara who affirmed that the Minister of Finance through Director of Budget Office, Ben Akabueze notified both Senate and House Committees on Appropriations of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. Coding, with a view “to notify us for the change of the codings within the line items. We have it. that was the main reason I was looking for the Minister that time to tell her.”
While noting that the Committee has the powers to remove such budget line items from the budget of any Ministries, observed that relevant standing committees have issues with the Minister that requires her urgent attention.
He further observed that the N206.242 billion project was correctly described in the submission from IERD for the 2023 budget, but unfortunately, the BOF Officer used a wrong code that resulted in it being captured as ‘Purchase of Security Equipment’ in the GIFMIS Budget Preparation System (BPS). The BPS has a limited range of encoded programme/project descriptions.”
He further noted that the “Minister of Defence wrote to Mr. President requesting the approval and release of $1,363,880.40 and N158,928,045.37 for the implementation of Phase 1 of the project. He also requested that the sums of $12,274,923.60 and N11,946,31 1,375.18 will be required to implement Phases 2 and 3 of the project, which Mr. President graciously approved. 50% of the requirement for Phases 2 & 3 (using the exchange rate of N435.57/USD), amounting to N8,600,000,000, has been included in the 2023 budget proposal of the Ministry of Defence.
In the same vein, Hon. Betara noted that the N2.250 billion for Safe School Initiative in the budget of Defence Headquarters “submitted its uncosted requirements under this programme. The Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) Secretariat, FMFBNP, however, submitted a request of N4.5 billion for MOD, of which we were only able to provide N2.250bn in the 2023 budget.
The lawmaker also queried the Minister over the allegation bothering on the deliberate underfunding office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) by “specifically disregarding its budget estimates submitted to the Budget Office and undermining Mr. President’s anti-corruption policy.
“In response to the Committee’s biased conclusion, the Budget Office reiterated that it exercised all due diligence in the preparation of the OAuGF’s 2023 budget, including the issuance of the Personnel Cost Budget Circular, and the circulation of Overhead and Capital ceilings to all MDAs, based on available resources, extant FGN Policies and relevant fiscal regulations.
“There is no basis for the claim that OAuGF submitted any budget proposal to BOE as that is not part of the process. Indeed, the only correspondence, from the OAuGF on the budget is dated 17 November, 2022, long after the allegation by the HoR PAC.
“Furthermore, it was brought to the Committee’s attention that the process of budget preparation does not begin and end with BOF, as it is subject to levels of scrutiny and approval before its submission to the NASS. Therefore, the assertion by the PAC shows a lack of understanding of the budget processes.
“In addition, for OAuGF there is still $2.8m available in Technical Assistant (TA) funds and another $7m based on disbursement-linked results potentially available to it under the FGIP project funded by the World Bank. This project will close by June 2023.”
He also queried the Federal Ministry of Power (FMoP) Project for the Power Sector Recovery Operation (PSRO) worth N70,562,340,000, noting that the submission from YERD for the 2023 Multilateral/Bilateral Tied-Loan project schedule captures the Power Sector Recovery Operations under the Federal Ministry of Power.
“However, the implementing agency is NBET, which has since moved from Power to FMFBNP. We can either reclassify the amount to FMFBNP or retain it under FMoP as the World Bank funding under the PSRO as a Power sector expenditure,” Hon. Betara noted.
He urged the Permanent Secretary of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Dr. Nasir Sani-Marzo to “tell the Minister to come and defend her budget with other Committees.
“We’ve given her today, we are collating reports. We’ll close the collation last week Thursday. We’ve started our work, but if we didn’t see her, we will collate our report and anything that goes into your budget, please don’t complain to the Press again,” he noted.
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