THIS 2018 BUDGET IS AN ABERRATION-SENATOR JIBRIL BARAU

In his 2018 Appropriation Bill presentation, The Senator representing Kano North stated that the 2018 Budget Appropriation is an aberration. This he said is because the MTEF which is supposed to be the  basis on which the Appropriation projections are based on, has not been passed by NASS hence the question is, on what basis was the Appropriations done? This he called a legal aberration.

He said, the normal process of preparing a budget entails reviewing the performance of the previous budget which in this situation is 2017, and judging by the woeful implementation level of the capital aspects of the 2017 budget which is not commendable at all, there is a major concern about 2018 budget appropriations.

He however noted the following,:

·         Only N450b has so far been released for 2017 budget out of N2.3T budgeted

·         The details on 2018 budget proposal do not indicate a roll over of 2017 capital expenditure aspect

·         Procurement on 2017 which probably would have been started will suddenly be abandoned

·         The Private sector its likely to have also spent money into the process of the 2017 implementation suddenly to be abandoned

·         MTEF is not yet passed, so how did the executive come up with the projections of their budget

·         It against the law to prepare a budget before MTEF

·         In 2017, we projected 2.3mbp for oil production, and ended up with 1.9mbp, so what the basis of projecting 2.3mbp again in 2018

·         In revenue, we projected 2.5T in 2017 and received only 1.5T, so it doenst make sense projecting higher revenue in 2018

·         In Education, UN prescribed at 24% of fiscal budget for Education, but we have barely 7% of ours allocated to education

·         Our education deserves adequate funding

In all he called on the Senate engage the executive properly with respect to this budget.

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