BudgIT has accused the National Assembly of “gross abuse of appropriation powers, fueling inefficiency & waste that contribute to poor service delivery and ineffective economic policy,” in its latest report which based its findings on the National Assembly’s review of the Federal Government budget.
BudgIT analyzed the 2021 and 2022 proposed and approved budgets of the Federal Government of Nigeria to ascertain the quality of the National Assembly review of the 2021 and 2022 Federal Government Appropriation Bills.
1,522 projects with a cumulative cost of N186.61bn were inserted into the 2022 budget of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nigeria.
.Key allocations to projects that are crucial to achieving the strategic goal of the Nat Devt Plan were drastically reduced to create fiscal space for the National Assembly.
According to the report, a number of projects in the 2022 approved budget can be directly linked to principal officers of the National Assembly.
The report read in part: “Overall, while the 2021 approved budget contained 19,017 capital projects, the 2021 proposed budget contained 13,416 projects, signalling that 5,601 capital projects were added to the Appropriation Bill during the review of the Bill by the National Assembly.
“It was observed that the monetary value of the 5,601 inserted projects summed up to N913.15bn (which is 21.8% of the total capital expenditure for 2021), spread across 32 Mother Ministries and 327 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.
“Similarly, in 2022, and alluded to by the President during the signing of the 2022 Appropriation Act, BudgIT observed that 6,462 projects were inserted by the National Assembly across 37 Mother Ministries and 340 MDAs. Cumulatively, the monetary value of the National Assembly insertions in the 2022 Appropriations Act was N910.37bn (which is 22.07% of the total capital expenditure for 2022).
“A critical look at the nature of insertions for the years under review, 2021 and 2022, revealed that the majority of the insertions are projects that ideally should be the responsibilities of subnational governments (state and local governments).
“Furthermore, despite the fact that the Executive had earmarked N100bn for Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIPs)—also known as constituency projects, nominated by the 365 Federal House of Representative Members and 109 Senators—BudgIT identified, as part of the insertions, 1,581 “Federal Constituency” projects in the 2021 Appropriation Act and 1,834 “Federal Constituency” projects in the 2022 Appropriation Act valued at N105bn and N137.07bn respectively.
“In the same vein, the 2021 Act had 1,055 insertions valued at N103.15bn, which were projects in senatorial districts, while the 2022 Act had 1,235 insertions valued at N139.26bn, which were projects in senatorial districts..”
“It is worthy of note that 614 street light projects with a cumulative value of N75.83bn, which were insertions observed in 2021, increased to 902 street light projects in 2022 valued at N114.95bn.”
Click here to download full report.
About BudgIT
BudgIT is a civic organization driven to make the Nigerian budget and public data more comprehensible and accessible across every literacy span. BudgIT which was founded in 2011, applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, to facilitate societal change. Its primary goal is to use technology to
intersect civic engagement and institutional reform.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
