The House of Representatives has discovered irregularity of figures in the 2019 budget as it commenced debate on the general principles of the Appropriation Bill at plenary Wednesday.
Specifically, the affected Ministries and Departments of government include Education, Budget and National Planning, Finance and Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF.
In the financial proposals of the respective Ministries, the figures for various subheads did not tally with the total amount earmarked as the total budget of the agencies.
The discrepancies were discovered by Chika Adamu from Niger State, shortly after the leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, moved the motion for debate on the bill.
Gbajabiamila and the deputy speaker, Yusuf Lasun, had taken turns to make contributions to the debate.
Adamu, who craved the indulgence of the House to make what he described as necessary observations in the budget estimates before formally advancing his personal views on the general principles of the bill, said: “I want to, before my contribution, raise some issues, particularly some errors I noticed in the national budget.
”As everyone knew, the schedule in the budget consists of part A, which is the statutory transfers; part B, which is the debt servicing; part C, recurrent expenditure and part D, capital expenditure.
“I will raise some issues, which have to do with one, the Ministry of Education; two, Ministry of Finance; and three, Ministry of Budget and National Planning and then, one observation with the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF.
“When you go to the Education Ministry, in part C, which is the recurrent expenditure, which consist both the personnel and overhead, you will realize that the budget is N462.2 billion, but when you go to the summary of the budget by the MDAs, number 41: 0.5.1.8 personnel now has changed to about N539.6 billion.
“When you go to Ministry of Finance, the budget of the ministry in the recurrent expenditure in part C is N10.8 billion. However, there is also an error when you go to the summary, which is number 21: 2.2.0. Personnel is N7.4 billion, which is okay, but when you go to the overhead, it now becomes N2.26trn and, therefore, that has also changed.
“In the Ministry of Budget and Planning, in part C is N9.3 billion, but however, when you go to the summary by MDAs, which is number 28: 0.2.3.8 personnel in the Ministry of Budget and Planning, it has now become N66.21 billion. Then overhead also changed there; it is now N832.2 billion. Then the total, which is personnel and overheard in that aspect has now become N1.49 trillion.
“The capital also has changed to about N655.9 billion, now giving us a total allocation of the Ministry of Budget and Planning, to N2.15 trillion, instead of N9.3 billion.
“Also, at the capital, which is D aspect, page 118 appeared only as ‘Federation.’ We don’t have any MDA called federation, but when I continued with the research, I realized that in that federation, there is a capital component of N31.8 billion. I found that the federation is in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, so why did they write federation?”.
Adamu’s observations swiftly rattled the House and obviously prompted the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, to call for concurrence of the errors by other members who might have observed such discrepancies.
Securing some responses, especially from Aliyu Pategi from Kwara State who corroborated Adamu’s submissions, the speaker asked the deputy speaker, Gabajabimila, Pategi, Adamu, Omidiran and the Clerk of the House to approach his desk for an aside on the issue.
After about 20 minutes of meeting, Dogara announced that there were irreconcilable differences in the estimates of some ministries and as such limited the debates to just the general principles of the bill.
He asked the relevant House Committee chairman to liaise with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning for reconciliation of the figures before another debate day.
He said: “There are so many irreconcilable mistakes in the budget. Even though it is apparent on the surface of the budget that there are so many irreconcilable differences in the figures allotted, basically we are discussing the general principles of the budget, by virtues of the provisions of our rules at this time. So, we would talk about general principles at this time.
“I am sure we are not concluding the debate Wednesday. I will direct relevant committee chairmen to liaise with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, to ensure that by tomorrow, before we conclude the debate on the budget, to make sure that we have the reconciled figures.
“So, for today, I want to admonish and plead with us to make sure that we confine ourselves to the general principles of the budget. I am by this announcement, drawing the attention of the Ministry of Budget and Planning and Finance to the irreconcilable differences in the figures allotted in the budget and unfailingly, by Thursday, if we must continue the debate on the budget, they must give us reconciled figures.”
Against expectations that the House would have postponed the debate, Dogara asked the lawmakers to proceed with their thoughts on the Appropriation Bill.
The lawmakers, who spoke included Aliyu Pategi (Kwara,PDP), Sunday Karimi (Kogi, PDP), Simon Arabo (Kaduna, PDP), Toby Okechukwu (Enugu, PDP), Chika Adamu (Niger, APC), Mohammed Mongunu (Borno, APC), and Serguis Ogun (Edo, PDP), among others.
The lawmakers largely lamented the poor implementation of the 2018 budget, noting that the citizenry was yet to enjoy the outcomes of the capital budget in each focal year in the last three years.
They also noted that the 2019 budget was not realistic as the 2.2 million barrels per day production of crude oil and the bench mark of $60 per barrel upon which the budget was predicated were still in doubt.
While Okechukwu noted that budgets of the last four years had been in deficits, Pategi decried the lingering poor economy.
Mongunu, however, craved the separation of agricultural budget from others to facilitate quicker passage to meet up the farming season.
Ruling on the budget after exhausting the list of contributors for Wednesday’s debate, the speaker announced that further remarks of lawmakers would be entertained on the matter today, hoping that the relevant House Committees would interface with the Minister of Finance on the budget estimate discrepancies.
APC Reps React
Speaking with journalists on the irregularities, the leader of the House, Gbajabiamila said: “Mathematical errors in figures are things that are normal. At worst, it may reflect some kind of tardiness but it doesn’t take away the substance and the merit of what we are debating. And if you know the rules of the House very well, we are not here to debate the intricate details of the figures and numbers of the budget, we debate the general principles. That is what the debate is about.
“It is a good observation and I believe it has been noted. Like the speaker said, it will be sent back; the communication will be done. They will correct the figures just here and there- that may have the potential of distorting the numbers. That will be cleaned up.”
Meanwhile, the House was earlier caught in the web of argument over whether it had the quorum to hold a session.
In the morning when it began plenary, only 43 members of 360 were present.
Consequently, Rita Orji from Lagos State called the attention of the speaker to the development but she was reminded that the keepers of the register might have recorded more names.
“You are not the keeper of the register, this is politics time,” Dogara replied.
