2015 Bugdet: Reps query illegal N222.bn on subsidy

Alarming revelations from the 2015 budget continued to unfold yesterday with Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia Nwaobi disclosing that N221.1 billion not appropriated in the 2015 budget was spent on fuel subsidy between January and July.
But Nwaobi who spoke at the public hearing held by the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on Non-implementation of Capital Expenditure was unable to explain to the committee how approval for such a huge extra-budgetary expenditure was secured.
Nevertheless, the Permanent Secretary who was again represented at the hearing by the Director of the Budget Office, Aliyu Gusau, stated that the sum was released as emergency expenditure.

“Nothing was approved or appropriated for (fuel subsidy) in 2015, but the actual for January to July was N222.1 billion,” she disclosed.
Obviously dissatisfied with the response as to who gave approval for the release of money not budgeted for, chairman of the committee, Aliyu Pategi (APC, Kwara State), stressed that such flagrant disregard of the Appropriation Act will not be condoned.
“Appropriation is an act and we insist on its implementation, we want to know where there are challenges but to spend money like N222.1 billion without recourse to the parliament is not acceptable to us,” he said.

Nwaobi again said the economy is not expected to out-perform the global growth rate of 3.3 percent. She stated that the significant drop in oil price affected the exchange rate negatively and in turn led to depreciation of the value of the Naira.
She said the Federal Government resorted to the adoption of stringent fiscal and monetary measures to ensure economic stability.
In his presentation, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Sulaiman Barawu explained that the Ways and Means account as approved by law is contingency for the Federal Government to borrow from to fund its deficit up to five percent of the preceding year’s revenue. According to Nwaobi the Federal Government took a credit advance of N330.615 billion from CBN.

Giving an overview of the expectation of the committee when it reconvenes next Tuesday, Pategi stressed that the ministry, the CBN, the Debt Management Office and the Accountant General of the Federation must present a harmonised position with uniform figures, which will give the public the true picture of the performance of the budget. He asked that a joint report be sent to the clerk of the committee.
Pategi while insisting that the investigation is not a witch hunt, however, observed that the failure of the Permanent Secretary to appear at the public hearing for the third consecutive time, was an act of negligence. He vowed to include the snub by the Permanent Secretary in the committee’s report.