Review 2015 Budget Now,Group Tells Buhari

The Centre for Social Justice (CENSOJ) has called on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to carry out a review of the 2015 federal budget in line with current economic realities, stating that the fiscal document, in its current form, cannot address the challenges facing the economy.
The Lead Director, CENSOJ, Barrister Eze Onyekwere, in a document analysing the budget, yesterday, stated that the document contained allocations for expenditures which he described as “frivolous expenditure.”
In the document which was made available to our correspondent on Sunday in Abuja, he said many of the expenditure heads contained in the fiscal document are unknown to the constitution and should therefore be removed.
The Senate had passed the 2015 budget on April 28, following the passage of the same bill by the House of Representatives on April 23, with an expenditure outlay of N4.493trillion, up from the N4.425trillion proposed by the Executive.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan had signed the bill into law few days before he handed over power to Buhari.
Eze faulted the template usually sent to Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government for being responsible for the over bloated expenditure of government.
He said, “The 2015 federal budget as passed by NASS is not the budget of change that Nigerians have been waiting for.
“It needs to be re-engineered, restructured and overhauled. A dire economic situation needs some adjustments and reforms or else, the country will not just stagnate, it will enter the reverse gear.”
He lamented that despite efforts made by the group to point out frivolous, wasteful and inappropriate expenditure, the National Assembly was “insistent on continuing the waste.”
Eze added, “We still had a lot of votes for welfare packages after the salary, remuneration and perks of office of the staff had been voted. This is an expenditure head unknown to our law.
“Many agencies still got outrageous sums for refreshment and catering services as if they are running a restaurant chain. It made no sense as it was wasteful.
“It seemed like the budget preparation template was uniform and sent to all MDAs who had to ask for things they needed and those they did not need just to ensure that the template is completely filled. Otherwise, how do you justify MDAs that have no need for uniform requesting and getting approval for one?”
He called on the new administration to plug leakages in the system, enhance performance of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and recover funds due to the Treasury.
He said the new government should ensure that new borrowing will only be done in accordance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, subject to a cost benefit analysis, reasonable interest rate and long period of amortization.