Senators yesterday expressed disappointment over the poor implementation of capital exp-enditure provided in the 2004 Appropriation Act and lamented that Nigerians are today confronted by rising poverty level and require intervention by government that will alleviate their suffering.
The Senators spoke as they deliberated on the 2005 budget. Senator Farouk Bello, in his contribution noted that out of the N351 billion appropriated for capital projects only N71 billion has so far been released which he said amounts to only 20 percent implementation of the whole capital budget for the current year. He called for the institution of measures that will improve budget implementation.
Senators Jibril Aminu and Yusha’u Anka expressed concern over the difficulty posed by Due Process to the implementation of the budget and called for a simple system in order to ensure implementation of constituency projects.
Leading the debate, the acting Senate Leader, Senator Jonathan Silas Zwingina while acknowledging the extreme hardship being faced by millions of Nigerians as a result of the harsh effects of government’s reform measures, also called for a substantial increase in the funds provided for cushioning the effects of the ongoing economic reforms.
“Mr President, distinguished Senators, in view of the extreme hardship being faced by millions of Nigerians as a result of the harsh effects of government’s reform measures, I am particularly pleased by the administration’s plan to cushion the impact of these reforms by providing in this budget some palliatives which would go some way to ease the economic realities of today’s Nigeria,” he said.
Senator Zwingina explained that the 2005 budget focuses on government’s plan to continue the settling of local debts owed contractors and the effort to maintain fiscal discipline. Other strong points of the budget he said, is the provision for additional social safety nets for youths, women and children.
“Although the capital expenditure proposed next year is N544 billion, lower than the recurrent expen-diture of N636 billion, the good news is that the proposed capital expenditure out-strips that of last year,” he said.
Many contributors expressed worries over low expenditure for the agricultural sector while some Senators said the meagre allocation to the agricultural sector has to be re-considered.
Senators Farouk and Titus Olupitan proposed upward review of the oil benchmark to 28 dollars per barrel or more.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives said President Obasanjo only presented proposal of the 2005 budget to the House and the breakdown has not been forwarded to it for debate and evaluation.
The delay, according to the House, would negatively impact on the public perception of government attitude to fiscal policies and called on President Obasanjo and the finance minister to urgently forward the breakdown of the budget to it to accelerate work.
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