Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara has disclosed that the National budget as submitted over the years did not reflect reality and National values .
Dogara who made this known during joint National Assembly budget hearing said that over the years nation’s budget is combination of audacious optimism and hypocrisy involving key actors putting together a budget that they fully know will at best be implemented up to 45 percent which is below average.
The Speaker said hat by the design of the constitution the President’s role in drafting the budget cannot be assailed but, insisted that ‘power of the purse” is the function of the legislature.
He said, “By our constitutional design, the president’s role in drafting the budget estimates cannot be assailed but the “power of the purse” is the function of the Legislature. That includes the fact that expenditure can only be made in consequence of express legislative authorization and the authority to create and collect taxes, borrow or raise money through loans when the need arises.
“Over the years, the main problem with our budget as submitted by the Executive is that it does not reflect National values and priorities. The budget, more often than not, only reflects the values and priorities of those who help the president in drafting it. The integrity of the project selection process has always being the bane of our national budgets. I regret to say that until we eliminate these problems, we will always have non implementable national budgets which cannot be relied upon by policymakers in establishing spending priorities.
“It is very painful that for some years now, our budget process has been an exercise in either or a combination of audacious optimism and/or hypocrisy involving key actors putting together a budget that they fully know will at best be implemented up to 45% which is by all standards below average. How many of us will be proud of a child who consistently performs bellow average in his exams? How many of us here are proud of our below average budget performance all these years? Our below average budget performance is the main reason why Nigeria has remained a major promise as our national potentials cannot be released without effective budget planning and execution.”