The National Assembly last week once again demonstrated leadership when it provided a road map to help the country navigate out of its recurring budget delays. The lawmakers came up with a document to guide and fast-track budget formulation and implementation in the country. This development can best be appreciated against the fact that barely six weeks to the end of the year, Government is yet to forward to the National Assembly, the 2017 budget estimate bill for consideration.
Last week, the lawmakers came up with 15 - key strategies to reform the nation’s budgeting system. Some of the strategies include the adoption of a budget calendar, which will begin with the submission of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) by the second week in July and end with the President signing the Appropriation Bill into law by the third week of December every year.
The strategies, which also include provision of laws on development plans by the Federal Government are aimed at easy and timely preparation of the budget and its efficient implementation. The measures were contained in a report submitted to the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki by the Senator Ali Ndume-led technical committee on the reforming the budget process in Nigeria. The lawmakers proposed a budget calendar that will ensure that the President assents to the appropriations law by the third week of December while the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) is submitted in the second week of July as the first step in the budget process.
The report to be discussed at plenary by the Senate also include amendments of the relevant sections of the Constitution and extant laws as well as enactment of new laws to improve the country’s budgetary process and align it to international best practices. Other key recommendations in the report submitted a fortnight ago include the proposed provision of a legal backing for national development plans, and enactment of organic budget law to fix a realistic budget calendar.
According to the report, the broad strategies aimed at improving the budget process “revolve around reforming laws and frameworks for budget formulation, enactment, and implementation, aligning the budget process to international best practices, strengthening capacities, and institutions for budget formulation and implementation, and strengthening the revenue base for budget implementation.”
The rest other key reform strategies for budget preparation as contained in the report were:
* Alter Section 81(1) of the 1999 Constitution and amend Sections 11 and 14 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) to provide for a fixed and realistic budget calendar by which the President will present the budget to the National Assembly by the first week of September, considered and passed by 30th November and assented to by the President by the second week of December.
* Provide legal backing for development plans to serve as basis for the annual budget and ensure continuity of development plans. In this regard, complete the legislative actions initiated for the enactment of laws: “Development Planning Act” and “Project Implementation and Continuity Act”, pending in NASS.
* Amend Sections 13-18 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to link MTEF with a development plan, as well as have a long term (10-15 years) development plan to be implemented with three year MTEF and Medium- term Sector Strategy (MTSS), while urging the National Assembly to support the development plan with a resolution and ensure that the annual budget is linked to it.
* Amend the FRA to enlarge the list of stakeholders to be consulted during the budget preparation process. Then, there should be pre-budget consultation between the legislature and the executive as well as between the executive and the public. And during the budget defense by the MDAs before the Committees, relevant stakeholders should be invited.
* Enact an organic budget law that puts together all laws relating to the budget, including a fixed and realistic budget calendar and a pre-Budget Statement.
* Alter Section 162 of the Constitution recognize saving by the three tiers of government through the Federation Account and provide legal backing for excess revenue savings to enable the country save revenue windfalls and stabilize government expenditure during fiscal crisis.
* Develop a budget manual. The budget manual should include the procedure for public participation in the budget process and public access to budget information during the budget preparation process.
* Amend Section 19 of FRA to include project documents in the list of budget documentation; amend Part III of the FRA to provide for reporting standards and information sharing arrangements.
* Provide effective timelines for monthly and quarterly financial and non-financial reports. Enact a law to compel all MDAs to upload their budget-related information on a dedicated website.
* Develop and publish criteria or methodology for determining the aggregate expenditure estimate and its allocation to sectors and line items. Expand the information content of the Budget Call Circular to include the modalities for public participation in the budget preparation process.
* Develop the capacity of MDAs and other relevant stakeholders to effectively apply the zero-based budgeting technique or any other performance-based technique that may be adopted.
The committee also urged the National Assembly to strengthen the capacity of its committees in the area of budget scrutiny and appraisal through helping members and the staff to undergo training and enlightenment programme on the economy and budget appraisal.
Institutions of the National Assembly like the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) and National Assembly Budget Office (NABRO) are also to be equipped to effectively assist committees with sound budget analysis.
This proposal by the National Assembly no doubt, is quite commendable because it accords with global best practices. However, as already observed by the lawmakers, before the recommendation for budget calendar could be operational, one key provision of the Constitution that must be amended is section 81(1), which gives the President, unrestricted timeline in any financial year, within which to get the budget ready.
Section 84(1) of the constitution says that, “The President shall cause to be prepared and laid before each House of the National Assembly at any time in each financial year, estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the federation for the next following financial year.
Now that the lawmakers have come up with these laudable proposals, it behooves on them to immediately commence the processes that would eventually lead to the promulgation of the laws for the implementation of the recommendations. It is not enough for the legislators to throw in these proposals and let it end there as had been some of the cases in the past.
The only way the lawmakers can fully appropriate the benefits of their recommendations is to ensure that proper machineries are put in place to translate the recommendations into implementable action plans. It is along this line that the need for the lawmakers to quickly revisit the constitution amendment process has become more expedient. So far, the constitution amendment committees of both the senate and the House of Representatives appear to have gone to sleep after their inauguration in February this year by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon, Yakubu Dogara respectively.
The two committees were given June 30th deadline for the submission of their drafts, but unfortunately as we write, that deadline had not been met and there are no indications as to the time the drafts would be submitted.
The National Assembly should quickly prepare a draft bill to incorporate all the 15- point strategies for transforming the budget process as already enunciated by the Senator Ali Ndume-led joint committees for commencement of legislative action, which will ultimately lead to the promulgation of law for its implementation. Since the proposed draft bill is going to emanate from the lawmakers, no doubt, it would enjoy speedy treatment. The leadership of the National Assembly should be the driving force for this process in order that it would achieve the expected speedy treatment and attention.
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