BudgIT Foundation, a civic-tech organisation in Nigeria, has decried the Tinubu-led government’s move to implement the 2023 Approved Budget, Supplementary Budget, 2024 Approved Budget and 2024 Supplementary Budget simultaneously.
The organisation raised the objection in a statement issued on Friday by its Communications Officer, Nancy Odimegwu.
BudgIT stated that the government’s proposal to run the four budgets simultaneously and elongate the implementation period of the 2023 approved budget and supplementary budget from the proposed termination date of December 31, 2023, to December 31, 2024, is an anomaly with no precedence.
According to BudgIT, standard practice should be that projects not catered to within a fiscal year are rolled over to the budget of a new fiscal year.
The statement recalled that the 2023 Approved Budget of N21.83 trillion, signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2023, was designed to run for 12 calendar months from January to December 2023, as is the practice globally.
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The statement partly reads, “For a brief period, Nigeria returned to the January – December budget calendar in 2019 but retrogressed from the 2020 fiscal year.
“From 2020 to date, the Federal Government has routinely extended the implementation period for the capital budgets beyond 12 calendar months, a practice that negates the principle of annuality of public budgets.
“The National Assembly had initially extended the implementation of the 2023 Approved Budget and 2023 Supplementary Budget to June 30, 2024, and now to December 31, 2024.
The statement continued, “If allowed to be implemented, the practice would convert Nigeria’s annual budget into a biennial one, a practice neither provided for by the 1999 Constitution nor the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.
” The concurrent implementation of four budgets will lead to severe budget credibility issues, as revenues projected in 2024 alone would most likely be used in implementing four different budgets, negatively impacting service delivery in critical social sectors and the provision of essential public infrastructure.
“To this end, we call on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to amend the complications of this convoluted budgeting system and return to a disciplined January to December Budget Calendar,” the statement concluded.
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