FG finally admits something wrong with budget structure

The Federal Government, yesterday, finally admitted that something was wrong with the nation’s budget structure and the quality of spending, adding that ordinary Nigerians have not benefited from the huge recurrent spending. Analysts told BusinessDay last night that the admission was an apparent reaction by the government to the deluge of criticisms and advice from several quarters on the nation’s huge recurrent spending.Several institutions and individuals recently reopened the debate on the huge recurrent expenditure of the Federal Government, and unanimously agreed that the spending was not impacting on the lives of Nigerians.Ngozi Okonji-Iweala who is the managing director of the World Bank and also its representative in Nigeria, as well as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have both advised the government to watch its recurrent expenditure.Olusegun Aganga, minister of finance, who admitted the huge spending at a public hearing on the justification for bilateral and sovereign loans by the Federal and state governments, organised by the House of Representatives joint committees on Finance and Loan and Debt Management, in Abuja on Monday, expressed worries over the excessive recurrent expenditure in the national budget, adding that it has grossly affected appropriation for capital votes.The minister however reassured that the ministry has set up a committee that is already working on cutting down on the recurrent expenditure.Aganga disclosed that the Federal Government had had to resort to borrowing in order to augment its funding of capital projects which, according to him, “are aimed at reducing the huge infrastructural deficit in the country.”“What we need to do is to restructure our budget. Our recurrent expenditure is too large. And therefore, we don’t have enough invested in capital projects. That is one thing we need to change and I have a committee working on that and we are changing that structure. We need to reduce the level of recurrent expenditure.,

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