Budget Deficit: FG may Resort to Bond Market
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja
Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. James Naiyeju, has said that should the delay in the expected return of looted funds persist, the Federal Govern-ment may have to resort to the bond market to fund the 2004 budget deficit.
Naiyeju stated these when the House of Representative sub-committee on finance visited his office.
The idea was rejected earlier by the National Assembly when the presidency suggested it in the current budget.
However, government had been financing shortfalls through ways and means without attracting any interests from the arrangement being done with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Naiyeju also said the only way out of the problem faced by the nation's embassies abroad in which most of them are being threatened with ejection and severe funds scarcity would be to fund them directly instead of through the Ministry of External Affairs.
He said he has already forwarded the suggestion to the Federal Executive Council and expect it to be implemented if approved.
Leader of the House delegation, Hon Ralph Okeke told Naiyeju that the legislators would like to know how far releases from the 2004 budget had been done and how the Federal Government funds was being kept.
Replying, the AGF said his office had released all monies which were due to ministries and departments. He added that the era of having authority to incur expenditure was gone as they forward such funds into relevant accounts once approval was given.
He blamed the clearance needed from Due Process Office for any delay in accessing funds by any Ministry or department and said that even his office was affected. He said people should be patient with the new system, which was put in place to stem corruption.
He said the problem was that most ministries did not understand the process to be adopted in getting the due process clearance, as some of them do not have internal due process departments.
He urged the legislators to vote more money to his office to enable it carry out training programmes which is expected to transmit them from manual to e-accounting methods through an aggressive computerization process.
Asked if such a programme would not mean loss of jobs among the 9,000 accountants working with him, he replied that it would not mean any job loss unless it had to do with retirements due to old age.
Naiyeju said his office has advanced in the preparation of accounts, which are forwarded, to the office of the Auditor General of the Federation unlike in the past when there was a backlog.
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