FG Releases N743.737bn For Capital Budget For 2023

The federal government says it has released N743.737 billion for the capital expenditure component of the 2023 national budget six months after implementation of the budget which ought to begin in January.

Accountant-general of the federation, Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein said “The treasury has successfully processed and released a total sum of N743.737 billion from March to August 2023 while a total sum of N487.421bn is currently being processed for September and October 2023.”

Nigeria’s 2023 budget has a provision of N5.9 trillion for capital expenditure out of the aggregate expenditures of N21.83 trillion.

Dr Madein made the disclosure yesterday at a one-day capacity-building workshop/seminar on the ‘Implementation of Cash Plan Policy in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges,’ in Abuja.

She said the disbursement was possible through the implementation of the bottom-up cash management policy of the federal government that was introduced in 2020 alongside a Treasury circular issued on 29 May 2020.

“The beauty of the plan is to ensure that monies are used as they are released. The era of ‘Have they released our capital budget?’ is over. It is now ‘Have they funded all our implemented projects?” he said.

According to her, before the implementation of the policy, the capital development fund was committed to the tune of over N1.5tn and the commitments remained so for months indicating that the actual cash needs of MDAs were ignored in the releases of funds to the MDAs. She said that slowed down the utilisation of already allocated funds while the government continuously paid interest on borrowed funds already committed.

The expectation is that the projects that are due for payment are settled once all the procedures and requirements are met. The accountant-general said completed and ongoing projects attracting interim payment certificates and programmes of MDAs that involve personnel BTA that are embedded in the capital are qualified for payment under the new plan.

“It has been made in a way that on a monthly basis, the MDAs are required to gather all the payments that are due and upload them. They will all be paid once the funds are available,” Madein stated.

She said the participants at the workshop stand a chance of getting better insight into the recent deployment of an information technology solution (GIFMIS cash planning module) to the cash management practices of the government.

National president of the Association of Public Procurement Professionals of Nigeria (APPON), Mr. Emem James Kanico said the use of unqualified and untrained personnel to conduct procurement functions is one of the major factors that have contributed to the inability of several MDAs to effectively comply with the Public Procure Act and other government regulations.

Kanico said to ensure that members practise in accordance with the rules and regulations governing the procurement profession, officers on other cadres must be disallowed from performing functions of procurement while there are professional procurement officers on the ground.

“The use of unqualified and untrained personnel to do procurement functions is responsible for the failure of MDAs to adhere to provisions of the Procurement Act. The President should sanction any MDA found engaging in such practice,” he stated.

Kanico said the workshop will promote capacity development and ensure integrity and transparency among practitioners.