Editor 
The 2022 proposed budget of the Federal Government is littered with frivolous items to the tune of N227bn, a report by a civil society organisation, Centre for Social Justice, has revealed.
The report said that a pullout of the frivolous items from the budget by the National Assembly would address the growing level of deficit as well as improve public infrastructure across the country.
The PUNCH reported that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in October presented a budget of N16.39tn for 2022 to the Joint Session of the National Assembly.
But the CSJ, in its report titled: “Frivolous, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful estimates in the 2022 Federal Appropriation Bill”, said Nigeria’s revenue was simply inadequate to fund fundamental expenditure.
The Lead Director of the CSJ, Eze Onyekpere, while presenting the report of its Citizens Wealth Platform to journalists in Abuja, also said that Nigeria would save about N2tn from abolishing fuel subsidy.
He said, “Every available funds should be spent with the greatest value for money, tied to a high-level national policy framework and aimed at improving livelihoods, growing the economy, reducing poverty and inequality, adding value, etc.
“It is against this background that the pullout of frivolous, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful expenditure calls the attention of the executive, legislature, private sector, civil society including the media to these frivolities at a time of grave national crisis.”
Onyekpere emphasised that the 2022 Appropriation Act should contain an explicit provision on abolishing fuel subsidy and “under recovery or any subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit by whatever name called or under any guise whatsoever.
“This will save not less than N2tn and make the same available for the Federation Account. No fewer than 60 per cent of the savings accruing from abolishing the subsidy should be channelled to dedicated ring-fenced (statutory) expenditure in education and health”, he said.
He quoted the 2022 Budget Call Circular as directing that “resources are to be allocated based on actual needs, in line with the immediate needs of the country as well as government’s developmental objectives and priorities.
“Spending billions of naira every year on routine maintenance of State House facilities is a huge waste. All statutory transfers are stated as lump sum provisions without details.
“No person, government agency or organisation has the right in a constitutional democracy to spend public funds in a way and manner that is unknown to the ultimate sovereigns, being the taxpayers and citizens” Onyekpere said.
He called on the National Assembly to review its estimates and reduce the same by not less than 25 per cent to free up resources for other important needs of the economy. This, he said, would amount to an allocation of N100.5bn and savings of N35.5 billion.
He added that the votes of the Ministry of Agriculture were suffused with vague, unclear bulk provisions for activities without locations which have no clear deliverables.
The CSJ also said that the provision of over N260 billion in Service Wide Votes for special interventions and Poverty reduction was worrisome.
It said, “Over the years, there is no evidence of benefits to the population accruing from these votes. But the authorities insist on continuing a practice without visible benefits. Several programmes in many MDAs have received multi-year funding for skill acquisition and employment creation.
“It is imperative to demand for reports of achievements in terms of outputs and outcomes and the value for money statement of previous investments. Otherwise, this is a waste of public resources. When you compare the level of unemployment and the votes in several MDAs in previous years, it will be clear that either this kind of votes have been mismanaged or have not been invested as proposed.
“There are no locations and identifiable class of beneficiaries in so many projects in MDAs including Niger Delta, Labour and Productivity, Water Resources, etc. The proposed beneficiaries are at large and so wide and there are no decipherable selection criteria considering that the requested amount cannot go round all persons belonging to these generic groups. NASS should insist on locations, qualification criteria of proposed beneficiaries and reports of previous achievements.
“The 12 River Basin Development Authorities sit on thousands of acres of public land. For instance, the estimate of N50 million was requested for clearing of the 5,000ha farmland in Auchi, Edo State by the Benin Owena RBDA. They get allocations for tractors, farm equipment, implements, fish and livestock replenishment, seeds, processing machinery and implements, etc.
“The RBDAs should be revenue centres that remit billions of naira to the Federal Government instead of the current approach where they gulp money without any meaningful contribution to the treasury. At the minimum, the RBDAs should be compelled to fund their personnel and recurrent expenditure pending when they are fully weaned of public funding.”
Speaking on the Review of the 2022 Appropriation Bill Parameters and Key Issues, the CSJ commended the Federal Government for the early presentation of the budget on October 7, 2021 saying it would give the legislature sufficient time to conclude the approval before the New Year.
“However, there is the need to amend the constitution to provide for early budget presentation and approval,” the organisation said.
