BudgIT, a civic organisation focused on the promotion of transparency in Nigeria’s budgeting process has faulted the National Assembly for continually omitting the budget details of some government agencies.
In a report published by the organisation in reaction to Senator Abdul Ningi’s budget padding allegation in relation to the 2024 Appropriation Act, BudgIT says the practice “goes against one of the core principles of public budgeting which instructs that all expenditure breakdowns be presented in the same budget document”.
The organisation however stated that its findings did not disclose that the Federal Government was operating two budgets, concluding that there’s only one final 2024 budget known to it.
It stated, “Our findings on Senator Ningi’s allegations of N3.7 trillion budget padding for 2024 budget shows that a breakdown of N25.4tn was provided for the budgets of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies”. Excluded from the published budget breakdown were the comprehensive details of some Government Owned Enterprises, GOEs, National Assembly, National Judicial Council, Public Complaints Commission, INEC, and TETFUND. The total budget of the excluded agencies amounts to N3.32tn
The assertion seems to agree with what the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola said on Tuesday at the sitting where Senator Ningi was sanctioned by his colleagues.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
