http://blueprintng.com/index/2011/08/%E2%80%98nigeria-is-broke%E2%80%99/


No supplementary budget this year
Jonathan cuts 2011 budget by 51%
Senate quarterly running cost slashed from N60m to N22m
Reps’ running cost now N15m as against N42m
Severance allowance of 6th Senate yet to be paid
By Amos Dunia
Abuja


President Goodluck Jonathan
“I think that the diversionary tactics seem to be working for the government. Two weeks ago, it was minimum wage or strike, now, we are bogged down with tenure elongation and later the executive arm would dust up the anti-EFCC and Farida campaign. It is a vicious circle.”

Indications emerged last week that the 2011 budget is heading for the rocks as the federal government has commenced moves to regulate the implementation of the budget based on half measures.
Already, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration which came out of the April 2011 general elections, broke has embarked on an austerity measure that would witness major ‘belt tightening’ in fiscal responsibility and spending.
The austerity measures are to cover the period of the 2011 budget pending the passage of the 2012 appropriation bill by the National Assembly.
Already, there is a 51 per cent cut across the board in the 2011 budget of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as contained in the Appropriation Act.
Blueprint gathered that the lack of adequate funds to finance the budget as passed by the National Assembly necessitated the cut thus the reduction in quarterly releases and approvals to the MDAs.
A dependable source in the presidency told our correspondent that owing to the shortfall in the ability of the federal government to finance the budget, there would be no supplementary budget this year.
This position was corroborated by another source in the ministry of finance who said that Nigerians must wake up to the reality of the need to tighten their belt until December or possibly March 2012 when the next fiscal year would commence.
“The fact of the matter is that there is no money anywhere to continue the excessive funding of the budget considered bogus and there would be no supplementary budget to cover for anything this year. It is not because we don’t need it but because the money is not just there,” the source enthused.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had last year criticised the provisions of the 2011 Appropriation Act as passed by the National Assembly and assented to by President Jonathan saying that the budget did not address both micro and macro-economic indices of the critical sectors of the nation and thus would be difficult to implement.
However, former Minister of Finance and now minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Chief Olusegun Aganga countered the former Vice President accusing him of playing politics with economic matters stressing that the 2011 budget was carefully packaged to address all critical sectors of the economy that were mentioned by Atiku.
As a further proof that there would be no supplementary budget to address critical budgetary needs, the Ministry of Finance has already issued a circular calling for inputs to the 2012 Appropriation from MDAs indicating that the 2011 budget has come to a close.
The effect of the 51 per cent cut in the budget is believed to have affected the operations of the judicial and legislative arms of government than that of the executive as the quarterly running cost of both arms of government have been drastically reduced.
Blueprint checks at the National Assembly indicated that the two chambers of the federal legislature for instance are now operating under a very tight budget as their overhead and quarterly running cost have been drastically reduced following the cut in the 2011 budget.
For instance, the quarterly running cost of the Senate which used to be N60 million has been reduced to N22 million while that of the House of Representatives was reduced by about N27 million per quarter as against its budgetary provision of N42 million per quarter.
It was also gathered that the budgetary cut is seriously affecting the operations of the federal legislature as its members that resumed plenary in June expecting to be paid their statutory allowances as approved by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission in lieu of accommodation, vehicles and other incidental allowances were shocked when they were paid only N7 million for accommodation and are yet to receive their vehicle allowances.
Similarly, the severance allowances of members of the sixth Senate are yet to be paid as a result of the 51 per cent cut in budgetary provision, a development that has put so much pressure on the President of the Senate and the leadership of the House of Representatives led by Hon. Aminu Tambuwal.
It was further gathered that the Senate leadership used the severance allowance of the sixth Senate to settle some of the allowances of the seventh Senate to enable members settle down for legislative business particularly the ministerial screening exercise.
Blueprint also gathered that the development led to the inability of the Body of Principal officers of the Senate to constitute standing committees of the upper chamber of the National Assembly before proceeding on its eight week-annual recess last Thursday as doing so may equally lead to further agitation for funds by some of the committees that may want to start their oversight responsibilities immediately.
Further checks revealed that apart from overhead costs, the reduction of the 2011 budget would affect capital budget of most ministries and parastatals as approvals are not being accompanied with cash backing.
“If funds meant for capital projects are not being released, the implication is non-implementation of projects and the only option left is to roll them over to next year’s budget,” an official of the ministry of finance told Blueprint on condition of anonymity.
In-coming Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had during her screening session on the floor of the Senate, said that there was the need for a review of the 2011 budget in order to address some critical sectors.
Our correspondent equally gathered that as a way of shedding off the heat that may be generated by the budget’s poor funding, the presidency is to introduce various diversionary tactics that would keep the people pre-occupied and would therefore have little time and attention for real economic issues that affect the people.
A senator on the platform of the ruling PDP told our correspondent; “I think that the diversionary tactics seem to be working for the government. Two weeks ago, it was minimum wage or strike, now, we are bogged down with tenure elongation and later the executive arm would dust up the anti-EFCC and Farida campaign. It is a vicious circle.”
It was also gathered that the unquantifiable amount of money that was believed to have been expended on the 2011 election starting from the pre-party primaries campaigns by the over one thousand campaign organisations, the PDP presidential primary and the climax which was the April general election may have dealt a blow on the 2011 budget.
In the same vein, Blueprint gathered that the over N80 billion allocated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the process and conduct of the election equally affected the budget as the amount dispensed to the electoral body was not captured in the revenue profile that accompanied the passage of the 2011 Appropriation Act by the National Assembly.
With the cut in the budget, it is equally doubtful if the agreement entered into between the federal government and the organised labour over the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage can be achieved as there are no available funds to meet such huge budgetary provision.