why President Goodluck Jonathan has not signed budget 2013 as about five grey areas
are now identified by the Joint Committee of the Executive and the Legislature
working on the budget.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the areas of
differences include the personnel cost, capital cost, SURE-P budget, SEC
exclusion and the constituency project with the committee reported to be
meeting regularly to finalise areas of disagreements.
It was learnt that the personnel cost as
passed by the legislature is lower than what was submitted by the executive,
leading to fears that approving the budget as passed may create crisis in the
payment of salaries of civil servants.
On the overhead cost, checks showed that the
approved amount was higher than what was submitted by the executive with the
harmonisation committee now looking at ways of correcting the differences.
The capital budget is said to be lightly
affected though investigation showed that the differences centre on
re-allocations of some sub-heads. The SURE-P budget is also said to be affected
in the areas of re-arrangements of programmes which are currently being looked
into.
The exclusion of the budget of the Security and
Exchange Commission from the approved budget is reported to be under
discussion, also with the joint committee said to be far from arriving at
consensual position on the request of the executive for the inclusion of the
commission budget.
The Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr
Nwanze Okidegbe, however, confirmed that both arms of government are making
steady progress in making the budget a reality.
He explained that after the National Assembly
passed the budget in December 2012, a review by the executive showed some grey
areas which, if unresolved, may create implementation crisis, adding that “the
president wants the issues resolved in a manner that will protect the best
interests of the Nigerian people.
While disclosing that the president supports
collaborative approach to resolving the issue, the presidential aide said “we
don’t want the current situation to degenerate into an impasse because Nigerian
people want results, not disagreement.
“Even if the president was to simply sign the
budget, there will be implementation problems. The personnel issue may lead to
industrial crisis among others,” he said, adding that “this is why there is an
ongoing discussion to straighten out the grey areas.
“For instance, with regards to issues
surrounding personnel cost, we have made some progress in resolving them and we
expect further progress so that we don’t compromise salaries of civil servants
and other related costs,” he said.
On the budget for the Security and Exchange
Commission, the presidential aide said discussion is ongoing on the matter with
the lawmakers, even as he noted that the issue of constitutional limitation on
assent to bills will be handled by the Attorney General’s office.
“Let me use this medium to reassure Nigerians
that we are making progress in our discussions with the National Assembly
committee led by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu,” he said, adding that
“the summary is that we are working with the National Assembly to produce an
implementable budget which will have positive impacts on the lives of
Nigerians.
