The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, has declared that the Federal Government will no longer pay for yet-to-be-awarded projects.
Madein, who made this declaration on Thursday during the opening of a one-day capacity-building programme tagged: “Implementation of the Cash Plan Policy in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges” in Abuja, also stressed that projects that were not included in the procurement plan “will be very difficult to implement,” going forward.
According to her, discontinuation of release of funds for such project will save the country from borrowing at the beginning of each year and avoid payment of interest on such borrowed but unutilized funds by the government to lenders.
Madein, who also spoke on the 2023 budget implementation so far, disclosed that N743.737 billion was released for capital projects as of August, while N487.421 billion was being processed for September and October 2023 for disbursement
The AGF further said that N1.2 trillion had been released for capital projects across the country and that in comparison to correspondent periods in 2022, N5 trillion had been released with actual implementation below N1 trillion.
Madein stressed that only implemented projects would henceforth be funded by the government to prevent the uncertainty over capital budget releases that were previously experienced in yearly budget’s implementation
In addition, she explained that programmes of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) requiring personnel movement, and payment of Duty Tour Allowances that were impeded in the capital budget would be honoured for payments once approved.
The AGF clarified: “It has been made in a way that on a monthly basis, the MDAs are required to gather all the payments that are due and upload them and they may even be due in the next few days or next few weeks but can successfully be uploaded with the criteria that has been set out.
“Once they are uploaded and once the fund that very month is available, they will all be paid. And what it means is that the beneficiaries that have already been mapped out that their details have been supplied would be the ones to be paid.
“It is no longer the time they would say, ‘procurement, I don’t want you to award the contract to that company, give it to another company’. The era is over. You will be at peace with your principal and everybody will be at peace.”
“There won’t be any area where you will be made to do something very different from what your work and procurement plan had spelt out from the beginning of the year.
“So, it is appropriate for me to encourage procurement officers to embrace this policy very well and ensure that the policy is working because it has lots of prospects.
“It saves the country from running helter-skelter to seek money at the beginning of the year while the same government will continue to pay interest on the fund that is not being deployed”, she added.
Madein, however, clarified that the capital projects to be funded by the Federal Government didn’t necessarily have to be completed as ongoing projects with milestones and interim payment certificates will be qualified.
