The Senate has been urged to thoroughly scrutinise the
2020 Appropriation Bill and scrap out some "frivolous, inappropriate,
unclear and wasteful estimates," which might have been included by various
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
A non-governmental organisation, Centre for Social
Justice (CSJ), in partnership with Citizens Wealth Platforms through its
Convener, Eze Onyekpere, while presenting analysed fiscal document to
journalists in Abuja, faulted the 2020 budget presented by President Muhammadu
Buhari to the National Assembly.
Few of the proposed budgets he specifically called
on lawmakers to scrap include the ‘Reclamation of abandoned mines sites
(Ongoing) at N318,173, 775 by Ministry of Mines and Steel Development; Planning
and Development of Nuclear Power Plant Infrastructure (Ongoing) at N300,000,000
by the Ministry of Power, and Strategic Negotiation and Engagements at
130,000,000 among others’.
Onyekpere, who also urged the lawmakers to cut into
two the N107,309,820 budgeted by the Ministry of Mines and Steel to maintain
its website, insisted that the vote is too much for the maintenance of a
website, describing it as a yearly ritual.
He noted that “all the expenditures that would not
impact positively on the lives of the people were included,” recommending that
many expenditures in the budget should either be slashed for being ‘too high’
or removed for ‘duplication’ in the expenditure of another agency of the
government.
Specifically, the CSJ wondered why the Nigerian Government
still voted over N4billion for what it described as a 'failed National
Carrier'.
The Ministry of Aviation had earmarked N4, 694, 131,965
as working capital for the establishment of a National Carrier and N304,000,000
consultancy for the establishment of the National Carrier in the 2020 budget.
The federal government had suspended the planned
commencement of operations of Nigeria Air in September after announcing in July
that Nigeria Air would commence operation before the end of this year.
“I regret to announce that the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) has taken the tough decision to suspend the national carrier
project in the interim. All commitments due will be honoured. We thank the
public for the support as always," the Minister of State for Aviation,
Hadi Sirika had announced.
Onyekpere, therefore, urged the lawmakers, as they prepare
to pass the budget on November 28 to completely scrap and save the money,
considering the fact that the country is not buoyant to fund it.
According to him, "Save this sum. Nigeria
liquidated its airways after it became extremely unprofitable and insolvent.
Nothing has changed. If the private sector wants to float an airline, the
treasury has no business providing funds for the working capital.
"There is nothing to show for the previously
budgeted money for working capital, hiring of transactions advisor and
consultancies.
“The executive budget is still inundated with
projects described as meaningless jargons, words that have no fixed meaning,
duplication of projects under different names; projects without locations and
others that have nothing to do with the mandate of the MDAs which they are
proposed for.
“When the Ministry of Agriculture has a project on
the promotion and development of the rice or wheat value chain, what exactly is
the deliverable?
“The use of loose words like empowerment, capacity
building, skills acquisition and upgrading without a contextual description of
what the expenditure will achieve is simply not the terminal to expend public
resources.”
Onyekpere, while giving a breakdown of some of the expenses
that made up the unclear expenditure, also expressed concerns in the State
House.
For instance, the sum of N 526.23million which was allocated
for the replacement of vehicle spare parts and tyres was bogus and should be
reduced by 50 per cent to N263.11million.
He added that the N 4.06billion, which was also budgeted for
annual routine maintenance of the Villa, should be reduced by 50 per cent to
N2.03 billion.
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