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Reps, at retreat, demand full budget implementation next year
From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna
APPARENTLY dissatisfied with the execution of previous budgets by President Olusegun Obasanjo, members of the House of Representatives have resolved that this year it was not going to be "business as usual," as they would demand nothing less than full implementation.
The lawmakers' position was articulated at the weekend by the chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Alhaji Farouk Lawan during a Strategic Thinking Retreat for Appropriations, Finance and related Committees.
In a statement released after the three-day retreat held behind closed doors by over 70 legislators, Lawan said the lawmakers had worked out a strategy to "achieve a reformed budget formulation and implementation that would benefit Nigerians in all sectors and all walks of life".
He explained that the retreat was designed to provide an opportunity for the legislators to "sharpen their budgeting skills", adding that they had reflected "soberly and comprehensively" on the mechanisms, systems and procedures required to ensure a more effective legislative budget, as they begin deliberations on next year's appropriation bill.
Lawan said: "This should result in a more equitable, defensive budget outcome."
Among lawmakers and other experts that participated in the retreat were the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, Senator John Azuta-Mbata and officials of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).
Others who also presented contributions at the occasion include the executive director of the African Institute of Applied Economics (AIAE), Dr. Eric Eboh; a former member of the Ugandan Parliament, Mr. W. Dan Ogalo; Chief of party of USAID/Nigeria's Budget Support Project Fielded by Development Alternatives, Inc, (DAI), Mr. Paul Banerjee; Head of Department of Economics, University of Abuja, Professor Oyinlola Olaniyi; and Director-General of the Budget Office for Federal Government of Nigeria, Mr. C.D. Gali.
Some National Assembly experts present were the Clerk, Alhaji Salim Ibrahim Salim, the clerk of the Senate Mr. Yemi Ogunyomi; the director, Department of Budget and Planning (National Assembly), Alhaji Suleiman Kabiru; Special Adviser to the Speaker on Economic Matters, Chief J.E. Odiri and other officials.
The retreat sought to ensure that lawmakers have accurate and complete information on the content of the 2005 budget and the anticipated process reforms advocated by the executive to clarify the budget, and to assist in long term planning.
At the centre of the issues were the mid-term expenditure plan that links the three-year national plan with a three-year budget frame-work, as well as the chart of accounts listing all categories of national revenue and expenditures consistent with international norms and standards.
The legislators also plan to strengthen legislature-executive dialogue through an inter face with senior officials of the Ministry of Finance, including the Account-General and the Budget Office of the Federation.
Other objectives were:
- improving internal information flow, feed-back mechanisms and processes to facilitate budget consideration among committees during the assembly review and deliberations on the 2005 budget; and
- consideration of the budgets ensuring that it conforms more closely to international norms.
Alhaji Lawan also disclosed that the legislators had resolved to ensure that next year's Appropriation Act would be "fully implemented at all levels.
He listed five issues, which are expected to help the institutional mechanisms and capacity-building approaches towards making the National Assembly a more efficient, effective participant in budget process.
They are:
- enacting an organic, comprehensive national budget law;
- immediate establishment of a dynamic, highly professional National Assembly Budget Office (NABO);
- ensuring more systematic and intensive dialogue between the executive and the National Assembly before the budget is formulated and at every stage of the review process;
- improving budget monitoring, including sustained imputs by civil society organisations and the private sector; and
- ensuring the financial independence of the National Assembly through a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) by amending the Constitution or enacting an appropriate statute.
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