2018 budget Is Clean Of Padding – DG Budget Office
- No Provision For New Minimum Wage
BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – The Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze on Wednesday assured Nigerians that the 2018 Federal Government’s budget proposals are untainted by the usual padding controversy.
This is even as he admitted that the budget document cannot presently accommodate the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)-proposed new minimum wage.
According to Akabueze, it is almost impossible to have budget padding or inclusion of unauthorised items in the 2018 budget because all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government took responsibility to directly upload their budgets on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS). The GIFMIS is an IT based system for budget management and accounting implemented by the Federal Government to improve Public Expenditure Management processes; enhance greater accountability and transparency across all MDAs.
The Director General stated that the process also had the MDA’s Accounting Officers and Chief executives signing the documents to confirm the budget proposals before submission to the National Assembly.
Mr Akabueze, who addressed a session on “Enhancing media and CSO’s understanding of current budget issues and reform efforts” in Abuja, said; “If there are issues, the MDAs concerned are informed and made aware of any amendment of the budget.”
He explained that; “In recent years, the Federal Government budget attracts a lot of attention from media, CSOs and the general public which is gladdening, because the budget seems to be an annual ritual.”
Acknowledging government readiness to entertain enquiries on the sectoral budget allocations, the Budget Office boss said it is pleasing that the national budget is now attracting considerable public attention aimed at ensuring its effective implementation.
On NLC’s new minimum wage agitation, Mr Akabueze explained that government would likely rely on supplementary budget if the new salary structure comes into force.
The Director General explained that in a situation where there is an agreement by both government and Labour, the financial implication would be computed with supplementary budget proposed to cover the expected expenditure if the need arises.
For Akabueze, “The only provision that exists is what we call public service wage adjustment, but that is barely over N40bn provided on that line, and that may not be enough to cater for any adjustments that may be necessary.’’
In November 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated a 30-man Tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee and challenged members to produce a fair and decent wage for Nigerian workers.
GIFMIS is designed to deploy modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to aid government in planning and using its financial resources more efficiently and effectively.
