TheNewsGuru

Tag: Budget Office

  • Tinubu appoints new DG, Budget Office

    Tinubu appoints new DG, Budget Office

    President Bola Tinubu has appointed Mr. Tanimu Yakubu as the new Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, succeeding Mr. Ben Akabueze whose tenure has expired.

    This was contained in a statement on Thursday by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale.

    Mr. Yakubu, an accomplished economist, brings a wealth of experience to the role, having served as Chief Economic Adviser to a former President, Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank, and Commissioner of Finance in Katsina State.

    The President expects the new Director-General to enhance the efficiency and quality of budget functions, promoting fiscal sustainability, transparency, and accountability in public finance management for national development.

    “President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr. Tanimu Yakubu as the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, following the expiration of the tenure of Mr. Ben Akabueze.

    “Mr. Yabuku is an accomplished economist and was Chief Economic Adviser to a former President from 2007 to 2010; Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria from 2003 to 2007, and Commissioner of Finance, Budget, and Economic Planning in Katsina State from 1999 to 2003.

    “The new Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from Wagner College, Staten Island, New York, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the same institution,” the statement reads.

    Tinubu thanked the outgoing Director-General Akabueze for his service and wished him success in his future endeavors.

  • Auditor-General queries State House, Budget Office, 306 others for spending N149b illegally

    The Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr Anthony Ayine, has queried 308 Ministries, Department and Agencies of government over extra-budgetary spending of N149.5bn in 2016.

    This is contained in the 2016 annual report of the Auditor-General for the Federation, which was obtained by our correspondent on Sunday in Abuja.

    The 2016 audit report is the latest to be prepared by the OAGF for all the MDAs.

    The report was submitted to the National Assembly in June through a letter to the Clerk of the National Assembly, with reference C/AR.2016/CONF/VOL.1/01.

    The report signed by Ayine, stated that the N149.5bn extra-budgetary expenditure by the 308 MDAs was a symptom of poor budgeting and accounting.

    Some of the indicted MDAs are the National Centre for Women Development, with N3.82bn; National Emergency Management Agency, N10.48bn; Police Service Commission, N283.3m; and Tertiary Education Trust Fund, N1.12bn.

    Also, National Primary Health Care Development Agency had extra-budgetary expenditure of N18.17bn; State House Operations-Vice President, N78.9m; Ministry of Petroleum Resources, N182.7m; Federal Civil Service Commission, N20.8m; Budget Office of the Federation, N96.5m; and Department of Petroleum Resources, N5.2bn, among others.

    The report read in part, “Our examination of the consolidated statement of financial performance and the accompanying Note 13 revealed that 308 MDAs incurred extra-budgetary overhead expenditure of N149,509,623,789.40 in 2016 as their actual overhead expenditure overshot their appropriated budget for overhead costs.

    “We, however, note that the total overhead expenditures of N670,827,528,970.26 shown on the statement of financial performance is far lower than the total appropriation for overheads for 2016 at N1,014,145,686,504.48.

    “The extra-budgetary expenditure of N149.509,623,789.40 by some MDAs on overheads is a symptom of poor budgeting and accounting.”

    Apart from the extra-budgetary spending, the report stated that an examination by the office also revealed that the sum of N12.08bn was transferred in cash to outstation offices and was not made available for the purpose of audit.

    The AGF in the report lamented that despite audit queries raised by the office asking for clarifications from the agencies, many of them never responded.

    Ayine said, “The MDAs and their accounting officers are reverting to the situation in the past where they did not promptly respond to audit observations.

    “I am concerned about this development, which is a major setback to our accountability process. Where accounting officers fail to respond to audit queries, the implication is that they have no explanation to offer.”

     

  • We’ll adopt organic budget law in 2018, says DG, Budget Office

    The Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze, has said the Federal Government has concluded plans to adopt the organic budget law in 2018 to speed up its implementation.

    Akabueze made this known during a monthly Lunch Time Reform Seminar on Thursday in Abuja with the theme; “Development in the Nigeria Budgeting System’’.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that an organic budget law is an act specifying the schedule and procedures by which the budget should be prepared, approved, executed, accounted for, and final accounts submitted for approval.

    He said that the process would specify a calendar that would bind the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the National Assembly to perform adequately as it related to budget implementation.

    “There is an organic budget law in process which will specify a calendar. That calendar will bind the president to present the budget to the National Assembly by a particular day.

    “It will also bind the National Assembly to approve that budget by a particular day and the president to sign and allow sufficient time for the National Assembly to be able to override the presidential approval.

    “And the whole goal is that by the Jan. 1, 2018, we should have that budget. We are working with the budget reforms committee of the National Assembly.

    “We have also agreed that it is a necessity, so we are all committed to do this.’’

    Akabueze explained that a more stringent evaluation had been put in place to monitor the amount of resources available for Ministries, Department and Agencies of government (MDAs).

    He said this would help to reduce the gap between what was budgeted for and what the people received at the end of the year.

    According to him, a greater use of technology is involved in the preparation of the 2017 budget and as such has made it possibly to standardise items of procurement.

    “ This is another form of reforms, it is a continuous process and we hope that year after years, there will be improvement that we can report on.

    “If ultimately, the budget implementation is improved, it will be for the benefit of all as we said earlier that the budget is not just the collection of numbers.

    “It is a tool for delivering in government socio- economic growth and that is for the citizens.

    On his part, Dr Joe Abah, Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms said that the seminar was timely as it would afford the opportunity for the public to be abreast of the country’s budgetary control.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Abah said that the country was beginning to have standard prices for things to reduce excesses in governance.

    “The objective of this seminar is to bring people driving reforms to come and face the public and the people who are supposed to implement the reforms so that they can ask difficult questions.

    “And to get to move on some things, we have been complaining that the budget implementation for 2016 has not been available and through this seminar, we have heard that it will be available tomorrow.

    “This is one of the key achievements that it provides. More and more, we are having standard prices for things.

    “The more we get standard cost for vehicles and stationeries, the less the discrepancies will be.’’