Buhari signs N17.13tn 2022 budget, despite alleged NASS padding

The President, Muhammadu Buhari on Friday morning signed into law the 2022 Appropriation Bill and the 2021 Finance Bill as he expressed strong reservations on the “worrisome changes” made by the National Assembly to the 2022 Executive Budget proposal.

Buhari also directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies,(MDAs) to commence early preparation for the 2023 transition budget.

The President said at the signing ceremony that the 2022 Budget provides for aggregate expenditures of N17.13tn, an increase of N735.85bn over the initial Executive Proposal for a total expenditure of N16.39tn.

He pointed out that N186.53bn of the increase however came from additional critical expenditures that he had authorised the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to forward to the National Assembly.

He disclosed that the Minister will provide the public with the details of the budget as passed by the National Assembly, and signed into law by him.

According to him, since the 2023 budget was going to be a transition budget, work must begin in earnest to ensure early submission of the 2023-2025 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper as well as the 2023 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly.

Consequently, Buhari directed the Heads of MDAs to cooperate with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, more specifically with the Budget Office of the Federation, to realise this very important objective.

The President, however, expressed strong reservations on the “worrisome changes” made by the National Assembly to the 2022 Executive Budget proposal, adding that he would revert to the National Assembly with a request for amendment as soon as the Assembly resumes, ensuring that critical ongoing projects cardinal to his regime do not suffer a setback due to reduced funding.

He listed some of the worrisome changes as follows: increase in projected FGN Independent Revenue by N400bn, the justification for which is yet to be provided to the Executive, reduction in the provision for Sinking Fund to Retire Maturing Bonds by N22bn without any explanation, reduction of the provisions for the Non-Regular Allowances of the Nigerian Police Force and the Nigerian Navy by N15bn and N5bn respectively.

The president lamented that this is particularly worrisome because personnel cost provisions are based on agencies’ nominal roll and approved salaries/allowances.

He expressed reservations on an increase of N21.72bn in the Overhead budgets of some MDAs, while the sum of N1.96bn was cut from the provision for some MDAs without apparent justification, increase in the provision for Capital spending (excluding Capital share in Statutory Transfer) by a net amount of N575.63bn, from N4.89tn to N5.47tn.

Other areas that the President expressed his reservations on are the “Inclusion of new provisions totaling N36.59bn for National Assembly’s projects in the Service Wide Vote which negates the principles of separation of Powers and financial autonomy of the Legislative arm of government.

In his words:  “The changes to the original Executive proposal are in the form of new insertions, outright removals, reductions and/or increases in the amounts allocated to projects.

“Provisions made for as many as 10,733 projects were reduced while 6,576 new projects were introduced into the budget by the National Assembly. Reduction in the provisions for many strategic capital projects to introduce ‘Empowerment’ projects.

“The cuts in the provisions for several of these projects by the National Assembly may render the projects unimplementable or set back their completion, especially some of this Administration’s strategic capital projects.”

It will be recalled that Senate President Ahmed Lawan has said at the Presidential Villa shortly after signing the budget that the National Assembly was correct in its judgment in the recently signed 2022 Appropriation Bill.

Ahmed said “As for the observations Mr President has raised, this is a natural and logical tendency between the executive and the legislature. Sometimes, our views on certain issues may not be the executive’s view.

“So I don’t think what the President did, by raising some observations, is something we should worry about. I’m happy that the President signed the budget in the first place. And he said it’s going back to the National Assembly to seek amendments or virement. This is a natural, logical legislative process.

“I believe that the National Assembly was right in its judgment, but there is nothing wrong in the executive arm of government coming back to the National Assembly to see how we’re able to dialogue and go through the process and see where the misunderstanding is. But I don’t think that is supposed to be a worrisome development for us.”

Lawan posited that government-owned enterprises should contribute double the N500bn revenue reflected in the budget.

On his part, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said the President early directive for all MDAs to begin working on the 2023 transition budget would ease operations for the National Assembly.