The preparation of the 2017 budget suffered another setback at the Senate on Thursday, as the upper chamber of the National Assembly took a swipe at the Executive for blaming lawmakers for the delay in the process.
The Senate specifically criticised the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, of reportedly blaming the legislature for not making the Executive to meet the October target of sending the 2017 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly.
Udoma was quoted by a national newspaper (not The PUNCH) as saying the lawmakers’ failure to give the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper was delaying the laying of the Appropriation Bill before the Senate.
Leader of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, while raising a point of order during Thursday’s plenary, faulted the minister on what he said in the story, which was titled: ‘Budget 2017: Blame National Assembly for failure to meet October target’.
The minister was quoted as stating that the suspension of the debate on the MTEF and FSP, which would be the foundation for the budget, had stalled his ministry’s plan to lay the 2017 budget estimates before the National Assembly.
Ndume, however, said, “We received the MTEF on 30th of September instead of submitting it according to the law not later than the 1st of September. That is not even the problem. I have a copy (of the MTEF and FSP), I went through (it) and the copies have been circulated. I talked to some experts. Even in this chamber, we have people we can call experts.
“If you look at this document that they call the MTEF, it is empty; it is empty and it doesn’t contain anything. If you have nothing, how do you consider nothing?
“Going through (it) and knowing that it is empty, on October 19, this is the letter I wrote to the Minister of Budget and National Planning. In the third paragraph, I stated, ‘To enable the Senate objectively to review the MTEF from a holistic fiscal perspective, we deem it necessary to invite you to a meeting to brief the leadership of the Senate on Tuesday, November 1.’ But the minister failed to turn up.
“Before then, I said, ‘You are requested to please send the following documents ahead of the meeting’, because that is what will make us to have something to consider. I said, ‘(a) the Medium-Term Development Plan (even a draft copy) upon which the 2017-2019 MTEF is founded;’ you know that is important.
“Secondly, I requested for a comprehensive report on the implementation of the 2016 budget (as of the third quarter, that is, September 30); that is also an important ingredient.”
The Senate Leader also requested for “all fiscal rates, taxes, charges, etc., used to derive the projected revenue in the 2017-2019 MTEF; because we don’t know what is there and how they did arrive at those figures.”
He further asked for “a report on the structure/composition of the debt, funding sources; how the borrowed funds are to be spent as well as repayment plan and schedule.”
Ndume stated, “Up until now, there is no communication as to that (the requests).”
He also made reference to the irregularities in President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter to the National Assembly seeking approval for the Federal Government’s 2016-2018 external borrowing plan, which he said “was thrown out at last.”
Ndume said, “We cannot afford to start the 2017 budget process with his blame game. This Senate is the Nigerian Senate. This Senate especially, we have the opposition that is cooperating with us and we have the majority in this Senate.
“It is not like we are working against the government but we know what we are doing and we should do it right. When they bring nothing and we ask for something so that we will do it properly, they spoke to the newspaper to start blaming the National Assembly. I think it is important we discuss this and advise ourselves properly.”
