Experts Commend FG On Budget Cut

Some experts have commended the plan by the Federal Government to reduce the recurrent vote in the 2012 budget by N100.25 billion.

In separate interviews with newsmen  in Lagos  the experts described the planned reduction as a welcome development and a gesture of fiscal discipline.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Iweala, had told newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja that the move was to reduce fiscal deficits and domestic borrowing in 2012.

Dr. Tunde Adeoye, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, said that a cut in the recurrent expenditures would be a welcome development.

He advised the government to further prun excessive spending, particularly on foreign trips and check leakages in the country’s revenue sources.

“It is a good step in the right direction because there are lots of leakages within the economy,’’ he said.

He said that corruption in government parastatal agencies was one of the major leakages that needed to be addressed.

“There should be accountability and transparency,’’ Adeoye said.

The lecturer also advised the Federal Government to re-direct its spendings towards infrastructure development.

The immediate past President of Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Dr. Samuel Nzekwe, said that government was now “beginning to live up to expectations by cutting the recurrent expenditure’’.

He said that N888 billion for the fuel subsidy was okay “because fuel played vital role in the Nigerian economy’’.

Nzekwe, however, said that the N100.25 billion was too small to develop the infrastructure..

According to him, any fund allocated for specific project, should be used for it.

“The ability of the government to make use of specific funds for what they are meant will impact positively on the economy,’’ he said.

The General Manager, Regency Assets Management Ltd., Mr Adewale Adeniyi, also commended the government’s move towards reducing “all forms of leakages within the economy’’.

He urged the government to prevent the incidence of ghost workers in government agencies to further reduce fiscal deficit in the economy,’’ he said.