BudgIT, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) committed to public finance transparency and accountability in the country, has charged the National Assembly to guard against padding of the 2023 budget by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in view of current economic reality in the country.
The Country Director of the group, Mr. Gabriel Okeowo, was quoted by the news Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as giving the charge on Tuesday during a telephone interview in Abuja.
The civil activist projected the size of the 2023 budget proposal totalling about N20.5 trillion presented to the Legislature by President Muhammadu Buhari would heavily weigh on the economy and its stakeholders.
According to him, the economy is already battling inflation, high interest rate and other economic challenges and should not be further burdened with a padded budget that will lead to more borrowings to finance it.
Okeowo said: “The National Assembly should make sure that they streamline the 2023 budget proposal to make it as implementable as possible.
“From what we have seen over the years, no matter the size of the budget proposal presented to the National Assembly, when it is coming out, there would be insertions that would blow it up.
“For instance, the President while assenting to the 2022 budget, said the National Assembly inserted several new projects.
“So, we have to start now to let the lawmakers know we are following up on the ongoing budget defence by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)”, he added.
The BudgIT leader maintained the legislature should be able to stand its ground to ensure that it cuts down on frivolous items presented by MDAs, adding that since it will be difficult to reduce borrowing to fund the budget, the National Assembly should then be stringent on fund allocations to items that would form the fiscal law.
Speaking on how the executive could also exhibit some level of prudence in the budget implementation, Okeowo stressed that executive also needed to sit up because democracy is a system that checkmates itself.
He further clarified: “If the National Assembly ends up not doing what it is supposed to do, the Executive should be able to stand its grounds to return the budget for amendment.
“We should not for the sake of wanting to sign the budget into law by December, to keep to January-December Calendar, mess up the credibility of the budget itself”, the BudgIT chief added.
