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| Senator Udo Udoma, Minister of National Planning and Budget |
The Ministry of Budget
and National Planning on Tuesday admitted that there were errors in the 2016
Budget, blaming the development on the adoption of the Zero-Based Budgeting
System.
The
Punch report continues:
The
ministry stated this in a statement by the Director of Information in the
ministry, Mr. Charles Dafe.
It
explained that while the budget, which was presented to the National Assembly
by President Muhammadu Buhari was well structured and targeted at reviving the
economy, those responsible for budgeting at the various ministries, departments
and agencies of government were still grappling with some of the technicalities
used in the fiscal document.
It
said the new Zero-Based Budgeting approach was still new to most of the
agencies of the government as it was a far departure from the envelope system
of budget.
The
Zero-Based Budgeting approach is a system of budgeting that reverses the
working process of traditional budgeting by ensuring that all expenses must be
justified in the new period.
The
approach is different from the now common envelope system in the civil service,
which was introduced by the Federal Government in 2003 and works by providing
each MDA with a maximum amount for its capital and recurrent needs for the
fiscal year.
As
the country moves away from the envelope system, Dafe, in the statement, said
the ministry would improve on the competency of the ZBB.
The
statement read in part, “The proposals have received general commendation.
However, the details were
developed using the Zero-Based Budget and
is a new concept to our Budget Officers away from our traditional envelop
process.
“The
members of staff in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning as well
as those handling budget issues in all ministries and extra-ministerial
agencies are grappling to
master the technicalities in the ZBB template.
“As
such therefore, some errors are not unexpected in the changeover to
the new ZBB approach.
“This
was the reason the ministry
arranged for the proposals to be placed on the website of the Ministry of
Budget and National Planning to expose them to public scrutiny.”
While
assuring Nigerians that the ministry would liaise with the National Assembly to
address issues raised in the budget, the statement said the government would
thoroughly investigate and sanction anyone found to have been involved in any
fraudulent activity as regards the budget.
It
said, “The ministry assures the general public that it will
continue to liaise with
the relevant committees of the
National Assembly to address any issues that have arisen, or may arise.
“Training
and retraining to build
capacity of the Budget Officers on the ZBB
concept will be intensified in 2016.
“As
we move forward, lessons are being learnt; the ministry’s
experience and competency on
ZBB will be improved and
perfected upon.
“However,
the ministry has zero tolerance for malfeasance and whenever any wrongdoing is alleged,
it will be thoroughly investigated and
sanctions will be applied.”
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