24/03/2016
NASS slashes, passes N6.06trn 2016
budget
ON March 24, 2016 7:40 AM / IN
Headlines / Comments
By Gabriel Omoh, Henry Umoru, Emman
Ovuakporie, Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Joseph
Erunke
ABUJA—The National Assembly, yesterday,
passed a N6.06 trillion 2016 budget into
law, following a motion by the Chairman,
Joint Committee on Appropriations, Senator
Danjuma Goje, seconded by Senator Andy
Uba, thus reducing the President's proposal
by N17 billion. While the President proposed
a budget of N6.07 trillion, the National
Assembly slashed it to N6.06trillion. The
2016 budget had been trailed by allegations
of padding which delayed its passage.
The highlight is as follows: N351bn for
statutory transfers, N1.4trn for debt service,
N2.6trn for recurrent expenditure, and
N1.5trn as capital expenditure. The N17
billion reduction in the aggregate
expenditure of the budget was taken from
overhead votes component of the N2.65
trillion recurrent expenditure of the budget
which has now been reduced to N2.646
trillion.
N2.2trillion fiscal deficit was retained. Also
retained, were the parameters of $38 per
barrel oil price bench mark for the budget,
2.2million barrels of oil production per day,
exchange rate of N197 to a US dollar and
deficit GDP of 2.14 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Presidency said that the
Executive was adequately involved in the
resolution of controversy that arose from
the budget before it was actually passed, just
as it hailed the National Assembly for the
passage.
In the approved budget, the National
Assembly ensured that only the N500billion
Intervention fund was allowed to scale
through untouched as other components in
the budget were cut because it bordered on
giving relief to the poor. President
Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday,
December 22, 2015, presented before a Joint
Session of the National Assembly, a total
budget estimate of N6, 077,680,000,000.
Of the total sum presented by Buhari,
N351,270,000,000 is for statutory transfers,
N1, 475,320,000,000 is for Debt Service,
N2,648,600,000,000 is for recurrent(non-
debt), while N1,845,540,000,000, inclusive
of N157,150,000,000 Capital expenditure in
Statutory Transfers and N86,000,000,000 as
interest on Capitalised Loans, is for
contribution to the Development Fund for
Capital Expenditure for the year ending 31st
day of December, 2016.
The National Assembly which observed that
the budget was not presented in time,
however, urged the federal government to
submit the budget subsequently in strict
compliance with the Fiscal Policy Act.
From the N351.370 billion approved for
statutory transfers, National Assembly gets
N115 billion; Universal Basic Education gets
N77.110 billion; National Judicial Council
gets N70 billion; the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, gets N45
billion; Niger Delta Development
Commission, NDDC, gets N41.050 billion;
Public Complaints Commission gets N2
billion, while National Human Rights
Commission gets N1.210 billion.
Also captured in the budget are:
N14,690,036,516 for Group life insurance
for all MDAs, including DSS/insurance
sensitive assets/corpers; N1 billion for
armed forces enhanced retirement benefits
of Commodores and above; N2.795 billion
for severance benefits of Delta Steel
company/Pension pay-off; N2,544,110,811
for military retirees NHIS; N36 million for
Administration and monitoring of OHSCF
Group Life; N200 million for Pension
verification and administration; N2.3 billion
for entitlements of former Presidents/Heads
of State and Vice Presidents/Chief of General
Staff and N1.5 billion for public service
reforms (including payment of severance
benefits of civil servants).
Out of N1,475,320,000,000 approved for
Debt service, the sum of
N1,307,400,000,000 is for Domestic Debts;
N54.480 billion for Foreign Debts while
N113.440 billion is for Sinking fund to retire
maturing Loans.
From the N1,898,444,450,116 approved for
Recurrent (non-debt expenditure), Interior
gets highest allocation of N451,942,552,070;
Education gets N367,734,727,223; Defence
gets N312,213,355,618; Health,
N221,412,548,087; Youth & Sports
Development, N72,297,326,595; Petroleum
Resources, N54,336,926,923; Foreign
Affairs, N39,440,096,249; Information &
Culture, N38,729,446,483; Works, Power &
Housing, N422, 964,928,495; Agriculture,
N29,632,584,416; while Science &
Technology gets N25,554,038,310.
Presidency gets N21,676,277,888; NSA -
N56,791,291,063; SGF - N45,890,745,817;
Head of Civil Service of the Federation -
N6,270,657,023; Justice - N17,389,782,636;
Environment - N14,515,408,468;
Transportation - N13,667,122,591; Water
Resources - N7,219,056,441; Solid Minerals
- N9,402,106,704; Industry, Trade &
Investment - N10,410,294,458; Finance -
N9,994,990,976; National Planning -
N7,737,100,536; AGF - N2,480,584,708;
Labour & Employment - N7,735,604,366;
Niger Delta - N1,261,723,837; ICPC -
N5,029,989,359; Communication &
Technology - N9,885,909,120; ICRC -
N838,569,623; FRC - N320,198,366; Special
Duties SGF - N65,604,713; while Women
Affairs gets N1,216,723,837.
According to the report on capital votes for
Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDAs), Federal Ministry of Works, Power
and Housing gets the lion share of
N422,964,928,495, followed by
Transportation with N188,674,679,674;
Defence, N130,864,439,542; Interior,
N61,713,279,496; Agriculture,
N46,173,963,859; Water Resources,
N46,081,121,423; Education,
N35,433,487,466; National Security Adviser,
N32,084,085,624 and FCTA,
N29,297,122,872.
The sum of N28,650,342,987 for Health;
N27,006,179,073 for Science and
Technology; N23,004,199,702 for
Presidency; N20,319,288,049 for Secretary
to the Government of the Federation;
N19,440,328,551 for Niger Delta;
N7,332,623,257 for Solid Minerals
Development; N5,542,655,626 for Labour
and Employment; N6,304,900,570 for
Petroleum Resources; N5,992,735,230 for
Communication Technology; N4,957,964,638
for Environment while N2,322,144,778 for
Budget and National Planning.
The sum of N3,497,043,000 for Youth &
Sports Development; N1,429,176,735 for
office of the Head of Civil Service of the
Federation; N2,293,528,977 for Women
Affairs; N897,736,744 for Justice;
N123,044,650 for Fiscal Responsibility
Commission; N169,871,885 for National
Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission;
N35.730 million for Infrastructure
Concessionary Regulatory Commission;
N317,509,819 for Auditor General of the
Federation while N667,842,500 for Finance.
From the N1,173,407,694,354 approved for
Executive (Federal Executive bodies), Code of
Conduct gets N4,889,127,358; Code of
Conduct Tribunal gets N1,055,560,066;
Federal Character Commission gets
N984,780,230; Federal Civil Service
Commission gets N16,841,017; National
Population Commission gets
N4,411,606,590; Police Service Commission
gets N269,628,000 while Revenue
Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal
Commission gets N19,883,417.
Also provided for in the budget are: N300
billion for special intervention (recurrent);
N20 billion for amnesty programme, N8
billion for Lafiya Dole; N4 billion for IPPIS
capturing; N1 billion for service wide
training of budget/planning officers on
GIFMIS budget preparation system as well as
monitoring and evaluation of all projects
nationwide; N2 billion for payment of
outsourced services; N2.5 billion for
provision of security equipment for selected
public buildings; N4 billion for Employees
Compensation Fund; N500 million for
election logistics support; N12 billion for
Pilgrims support services; N12 billion for
contingency; N3,599,600,000 for margin for
increases in costs and recurrent adjustment
costs; N8.5 billion for external financial
obligations; N3.5 billion for assessed
contribution to African Union and others; N6
billion for contribution to international
organizations including WAEC international;
N33,597,400,000 for public service wage
adjustment for MDAs (Inc!using arrears of
promotion and salary increases); N3 billion
for outstanding payments to health
professionals; N13 billion for operations -
internal for armed forces; N10.255 billion
for Improved remuneration package for
Nigerian Police including 2014 and 2015
shortfalls and N400 million for 35th annual
general meeting and symposium of Shelter-
Afrique in Nigeria in June 2016.
Presenting the report at the plenary for
consideration, Chairman, Senate Committee
on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje,
who noted that the budget was filled with
controversy, said there were many lapses in
the budget, adding that if the senate had
insisted on clearing the lapses, the
committee would not have been able to meet
up with the deadline of submission. The
Senate said its approval of the 2016 fiscal
document was due to its satisfaction that the
country would benefit if it was passed into
law.
He said: “This budget is full of controversy
and we did not want to have more
controversy or else it wouldn't have been
presented today and the National Assembly
would be blamed. The people would not
understand it because people are even
saying that we are playing politics."
“This budget exercise was a follow-up
negotiation, going forward and back. When
the budget was presented as attested by
many committees, there were strategies
discovered that couldn’t close the personnel
cost in various committees and these were
highlighted by various committees and the
total amount involved was presented to the
executive during the course of our
interaction with the budget office.
“We presented that these are the shortfalls
from personnel and other overhead cost
which we believe should be taken care of.
So, because this budget is full of
controversies, we didn’t want to add more
controversy and if we added more
controversy, the report wouldn’t have been
submitted today and the National Assembly
would be blamed for delaying this budget .
That is why we did everything possible to
ensure that we beat the deadline in bringing
it today.
“Nigerians may not understand this thing,
they will say the National Assembly is playing
politics with this budget and there is no
politics in this budget. So, we do our best
everything possible to ensure that we present
our budget as implement able and suitable to
Nigerians.
The National Assembly advised that there
should be proper consultation between the
budget office and the ministries,
departments and agencies and requested the
federal government to diversify its revenue
base, and to shore up capital expenditure
and reduce recurrent expenditure. In his
contribution before the passage of the bill,
Deputy Senate President,Uche Ekweremadu
who noted that he was conscious for the
fact that it had earlier gone pass the second
reading and “so this is not open to debate,
said, “ I will just like to make a very quick
comment, so let me start by commending
the chairman of the appropriation
committee and its members as well as the
chairmen of the various committees of the
Senate for the very outstanding work they
have done to get bthis budget up to this
level which is now ready for passage today.
“I am a bit worried about the observation
contained on page five, paragraph 5, it says
“the 2016 appropriation bill contained a
number of omissions particularly in the area
of personnel cost though the appropriation
committees have filled some of the gaps and
there are many outstanding cases which
could raise serious concerns in the course of
the year.
“The executive presented what we consider
to be a proposal and so the ultimate
responsibility for this budget rest on all
members of the National Assembly. It may
be a mistake on the part of the executive
and I think it ends at the point they
presented the budget.
“If anything happens after that and we
passed the budget we cannot blame them
any longer. I therefore I will like to know
what this outstanding cases are because it
appears that they are in relation to
personnel cost, it could not be a good
commentary on this Senate or the National
Assembly but down the line during the year,
we could discover that some of the people
we are representing have not being paid
because we have refused, failed or neglected
to appropriate for them their due salaries
and emoluments that could not be correct,
or that would not be right.
“I will therefore be asking the chairman if
they can oblige us those areas that are still
outstanding especially as concerned
personnel cost so that we can take the
advantage of this consideration now to filling
this gaps so that every citizens of Nigeria as
entitled to his pay would receive the pay
appropriately and you cannot say that he will
not receive it because we failed to do our
job and we cannot blame the executive
because we now have opportunities to
address this problem.”
In his contribution, Senate Minority Leader,
Senator Godswill Akpabio said, ‘’I want to
congratulate the chairman of the committee
my dear brother, senator Goje and all the
members and the other sub-committees
members and chairmen for a job well done
most especially for the observations
contained in this paper on the
inconsistencies, the delays and shoddy jobs
done on the budget by the different
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
and I know as a result of the fact that this is
the first major budget of the current
administration this to not to quantify of n
change, this is rightly to be just mere
mistakes and disconnect because a situation
where ministries and MDAs to go and deny
and even went up to the extent of denying
their own budget before the appropriation
committee is not good for our country.
