Why 2013 budget is not signed, by Presidency

The Presidency yesterday explained why President Goodluck Jonathan has not signed the 2013 budget.

Addressing reporters in Abuja, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Nwanze Okeidegbe, said President Jonathan refused to sign the budget because “of some contentious issues in the budget, chief among which are the constituency projects injected into the budget document by the legislators and the reduction in the personnel estimates submitted by the executive.”

However, the Presidency has moved to mitigate any adverse consequence of a possible veto of the 2013 budget by the National Assembly following the President’s refusal to sign the budget.

It has directed the Attorney- General of the Federation (AGF) to give the President a legal advice on the provisions of the constitution as it applies to the veto power.

Dr. Okeidegbe said the Presidency was uncomfortable with some aspects of the 2013 budget, which the lawmakers tampered with.

According to him, “there were differences in what the executive submitted in the votes for personnel and what came back from the National Assembly, as the votes were cut down. This has remained unresolved. It would be difficult to pay salaries with the personnel votes they passed and this may lead to industrial challenges.”

Okeidegbe added: “There is an issue on constituency project, which is on the table and discussion is ongoing. It is difficult to give a definite answer on the matter when discussions are ongoing, but we are progressing in reaching understanding and accommodation on the issues on the table.”

The Chief Economic Adviser noted that another issue delaying the signing of the budget is “that the overhead as passed by the National Assembly is higher than what was submitted by the executive, and again, we are discussing and progress is being made, but not fully resolved.”

With regards to capital votes, Dr. Okeidegbe said there were some re-allocations made by the legislators.

“Some went up and some went down and some were removed, thus making it difficult to implement. As a result, we have pointed out those areas and the National Assembly and executive are discussing with a view to resolving them,” he said.

The Chief Economic Adviser to the President noted that in the interim, the executive and legislative arms have reached an understanding on how government would function pending a resolution of the contentious issues and subsequent signing into law by the President.

Said he: “President Jonathan wants to sign the 2013 budget as soon as possible if our discussions with the National Assembly leads to a resolution of certain key issues.”

In his defence of the executive arm of government, Dr. Okeidegbe said: “The executive submitted the budget to the National Assembly in October 2012. Nigerians were very happy about this because it was a refreshing difference from the delays we had been used to. We worked very hard to achieve this. So we want budget implementation to begin as soon as possible so that Nigerians can enjoy the benefits in the budget.”

The National Assembly, he said, “returned the budget in December 2012. Upon review by the executive, some grey areas were identified and needed to be resolved. Since then, we have been working in partnership with the National Assembly to resolve the issues around the budget.

“The President wants the issues resolved in a manner that will protect the interest of Nigerians. He supports a collaborative approach in the discussions with the National Assembly.”

Dr. Okeidegbe noted that government does not “want the current situation surrounding the budget to degenerate into an impasse because Nigerians want results not disagreements. This is why we have asked the Attorney- General of the Federation to furnish us with a legal advice on the constitutionality of a veto and its application.”



-- The Nation