The
2015 budget proposal as presented to National Assembly by the Minister of
Finance, NgoziOkonjo-Iweala in mid-december last year has not been made public,
and this raises question about the fiscal state of government, warns BudgIT.
Where
is the Official 2015 Proposed Federal Government Budget?
In mid-December last year, the Honorable
Minister NgoziOkonjo-Iweala presented the 2015 Budget Appropriation Bill to the
National Assembly. Along with the proposed estimates to the legislature, the
minister gave a stirring speech outlining the country’s precarious fiscal
position and how the government plans to respond with fiscal and cost-cutting
measures. The speech – the Transition Budget – has been published online on the
Ministry of Finance’s website. However, the Bill itself, which contains the
details and the specific line items that make up the budget proposal, has not
been published on the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) website. This is an
unusual move considering the haste which previous bills have been placed online
for further review.
Not only does Nigeria regularly publish
such information, but it is standard practice across the world to do so. The
Open Budget Tracker (www.obstracker.org) – an online tool that monitors the
budget information governments are making public – shows that, among the 30
countries covered, Nigeria is one of the few that has failed to release an
“Executive’s Budget Proposal.” One has to look beyond the region to countries
such as Vietnam and Iraq to find places that do not make theirs publically
available.
The reason it is so important to release these
details to the public is that they are crucial in understanding how the
government plans to steer the economy and invest in the country’s future. Under
normal circumstances, academics, civil society groups, the media, and the
private sector all pore over the numbers, raising questions on several line
items that need intense scrutiny.
Interested stakeholders then turn to legislators and the media to voice
concerns and champion their causes before the official budget is voted into
law. At a time when falling oil prices have left many deeply concerned about
the state of the nation’s finances, understanding in full, how the government
plans to respond is more than crucial.
Indeed, despite the Finance Ministry’s attempt
to keep it under wraps, much of the information contained in the 2015 budget
proposal has already found its way into the public domain. Many government
institutions were provided with copies of the proposal, including the
legislature. With all those copies floating around, it is hardly surprising
that some were ‘leaked’ beyond the government.
So what does the proposal contain? If you
listened to the speech, youwould expect that the high ratio of recurrent to
capital spending will be reversed to aim for a more sustainable budget ofaround
60:40 recurrent to capital spending ratio In fact, analysis has revealed the
opposite is being proposed. Capital expenditure – spending on items such as new
roads, schools and hospitals – is being slashed while recurrent expenditure, which
covers items such as government wages, is proposed to be slightly increased.
Such discrepancies underline why the budget proposal in full, rather than the
speech, should be made public.
In trying to understand why the Ministry of
Finance has attempted to withhold the numbers from the general public, it is hard
to look past the coming national election. Could it be that they are concerned
about criticism right before Nigerians go to the polls? Are they afraid that
the budget will sway voters in a tight race? Whatever the reason is, it is
important that Nigeria build strong and independent public finance institutions
that are not interested in political posturing in order to deepen trust within
key domestic and international stakeholders who rely on the presented numbers
to assess the financial position of the country.
Thanks to our partner organizations such as
the National Assembly Budget and Research Office, and Center for Social
Justice, Nigerians are talking about the 2015 budget and publishing their
analysis for all to see. The Citizens
Wealth Platform, a coalition of non-governmental organizations led by Center
for Social Justice, has decried the huge waste and frivolous spending in the
2015 budget which was hinged on austerity. A sum of N304.5bn has been
identified as potential savings from the 2015 federal budget proposal. The group has proposed that National Assembly consider this austere time
to fully review all the proposals by Ministries and identify more funds that
can be saved and spent on capital expenditure.
The general public has been made aware –
not only by the Minister’s speech, but by the numbers themselves – of what the
2015 budget proposes. Now that the
election has been delayed until March, and budget proposal is no longer secret,
isn’t it time to publish the official version? Thanks for the speech Honourable
Minister, but can we please have the official budget numbers now?
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