Oshiomhole presents N111.5bn 2016 Budget

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has presented the state’s 2016 budget of N111.5 billion to the state House of Assembly for approval.

Governor Oshiomhole

Tagged “Budget of Finishing Well” the 2016 budget is 12.6% lower than the 2015 budget which was revised downward to N127.01 billion due to economic realities.

While presenting the budget, Governor said the “reduction is in line with current economic realities, especially developments in the international oil market and the dwindling inflows from the Federation Account.”

He said the policy focus of the Year 2016 Budget is the completion or near completion of on-going road construction/rehabilitation projects across the State. Noting that  roads at various stages of completion will be accorded priority.

Capital expenditure will take N58.9 billion representing 52.84% of the total budget, while the proposed recurrent expenditure is N52.6 billion representing 47.16% of the budget.

A breakdown of the budget shows that Education and Health sub-sectors take the lion share of the budget with N14 billion each followed byroads infrastructure at N9.24 billion and Flood and erosion control at N8 billion.

The Governor assured people of the state that”In 2016 Fiscal year, efforts would be geared towards substantial completion of all the outstanding Storm Water projects across the State, the completion of the Auchi, Queen Ede and Ekekhuan Gully Erosion remediation projects, substantial completion of all current streetlight projects and institutionalization of the process of maintenance of all built infrastructure, streetlights, drains etc.

“This administration is currently working on the designs for the following seven gully erosion sites approved: Ibore, Ewu, Emu, Ogiso/Osunde, Ambrose Alli University (AAU), and Auchi Agenebode Road gully erosion sites.

“The designs of Flood and Erosion Control Structures for Gapiona/Adesuwa Grammar School road to de-flood the Western part of the Benin City GRA, covering about 9 square kilometres is at advanced stage. Also designs for Urora Community in Benin City and Igbe Quarters in Auchi are being carried out.”

On funding for the budget, Governor Oshiomhole said “it is now a common knowledge that given the vagaries in the international oil market, we can no longer depend on the revenue from federal sources to implement our development agenda. Therefore, it is imperative for this administration to look inward through expansion of our internal revenue base. In Year 2016, focused attention will be given to the actualization of new revenue sources such as the Land Use Charge and the automation of revenue collection process via the implementation of Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS).

“It is our desire to sustain the sensitization of our people to see the need for prompt payment of taxes in order to execute the laudable people-oriented programmes/projects of this administration. On our part as Government, committed to the principles of transparency and accountability, let me assure you that we will make judicious use of all revenues at our disposal. While we remain true to our pledge, I wish to appeal once again to all and sundry not to politicise this important issue that borders on civic responsibility and our collective survival as a State and as a people.”

Oshiomhole presents N111.5bn 2016 Budget

‘2016 Budget delay shows unpreparedness of Buhari administration’

The failure of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to present its 2016 Budget proposals to the National Assembly, less than one and a half months to the end of the current Fiscal Year is a demonstration of its unpreparedness for governance, the Executive Director of the Centre for Social Justice, CSJ, Mr. Eze Onyekpere, has said.

President Buhari

He spoke at the roundtable meeting on Budget Transparency and Public Engagement in Budget Process, following the release of the Open Budget Survey 2015, in Abuja , yesterday.

“That the executive has not presented the 2016 budget to the National Assembly until now shows the unpreparedness of the current administration in matters of governance”, Mr. Onyekpere said.

He noted that by the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission Act, 2007, the reviewed Medium Term Economic Framework, MTEF, should have been approved by the National Assembly, and that the 2016 budget should have almost been passed by the legislature, by now.

His words, “Right now , we don’t have the MTEF to underpin the budget and we don’t have the budget. The implication is that the budget is going to be presented very late and it may not be ready until the end of the first quarter of 2016, which has been the usual tradition. The implications are not funny for the administration of the Nigerian people.

That means that the capital budget will be delayed and by the time they approve it in March, April or May, it will be raining season and all out-door constructions will stop.

“So we are continuing the cycle of poor capital budget implementation and of course that would mean addressing less of the needs of the Nigerian people who are suffering infrastructure deficit and also attending to less of the poor because the majority of Nigerians are poor and the budget is expected to address their needs.”

What to do

Mr. Onyekpere who is a budget enthusiast said that the federal government should hurry up the preparation of the budget and present it to the NASS since it has already lost a lot of time with a view to seeing what could be in an already bad situation.

“They should give it to the NASS before the Christmas and New Year break, so that they can complete work on it before the end of the first quarter of next year,” he said

Recurrent/Capital budgets imbalance

On the lopsidedness of the federal government budget against capital votes, the CSJ boss said that it would remain a major challenge for the Buhari team, considering the fact that the bulk of the recurrent goes to personnel cost, but that it should think on how to improve the funding of capital expenditure through saving a lot of money by plugging every leakage and using other sources of funding outside of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

In a message, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, called for a greater public participation in the budget process as according to him, “a budget should not be a secret instrument” and that the CBN would be glad to see Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, actively participate in both the budget preparations process and implementation monitoring.

Mr. Emefiele who was represented by the Director, Finance Department, Mrs. Tope Omage, said, “for a budget to be effective, it must be approved before the period which it is to be implemented,” and that the CBN would play sufficiently its roles in the implementation of the federal government budget.

Also speaking, Engr. Babatunde Kuye who stood in for the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, Engr. Emeka Eze said that the organization saved the federal government over N650 billion in inflated contracts between 2012 and 2014.

‘2016 Budget delay shows unpreparedness of Buhari administration’