Institute Wants Members Involued In Annual Budgets

The Institute of Finance and Control of Nigeria has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to involve its members in the preparation of annual budgets.

Mr  Eohoi Godwin, Registrar of the Institute, told newsmen  in Lagos on Monday that the intention of the institute was to assist in the planning of annual budgets.

He said that the country lacked requisite capacities to implement budgets.

Godwin said that a good finance and control system would help the country to make appropriate investment decisions.

“The system will also source funds on favourable terms and allocate such funds on projects,” he said.

Godwin urged President Jonathan to engage financial experts in raising funds for projects.

“The involvement of finance control experts in projects will hasten the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) goals.

“Although researches carried out by the institute in 2010 revealed that the country has been coming up with good budget books.

“But we noted that the implementation of the country’s annual budget has never exceeded 47 per cent as indicated by the number of projects that have been abandoned,” he said.

Godwin said that revenues from oil and other sources were not being used to develop the infrastructure.

”Revenue from oil and other sources are more than enough to manage the economy, yet the country’s debt profile is rising.

“Nigeria’s  external debt has reached 4.5 billion dollars and N4.5 trillion domestic debts according to the figures released by Debt Management Office in May 2011,” he said.

Godwin advised the President to  engage his members in the production of annual budgets, saying that the association had enough professionals to get the country out of its debt problems.