For Budget 2012 to meet President Goodluck Jonathans transformation agenda, the Federal Government must establish a means of effectively monitoring compliance with financial regulations, the Public Procurement Act and related statutes. It must impose severe disciplinary action, including legal prosecution, for infractions of due process.During the budget presentation to the National Assembly, Senate President David Mark recalled that beautiful budget speeches had been made in the past only for the key elements of the proposals to be abandoned by the Executive shortly afterwards. House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, was even more direct. According to him, The sheer number of uncompleted and mostly abandoned projects and programmes in this country boggles the mind. It is the single most obvious sign of shoddy government implementation of the national budget over the years.Endemic public corruption is at the heart of the Federal Governments unenviable record of budget implementation. A 2007 appraisal of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit by an Abuja-based non-governmental organisation, Integrity, stated that open abuses to rules and standards in the award and execution of public contracts in Nigeria were evident in over-invoicing, inflation of contract costs, proliferation of white elephants and diversion of public funds through all kinds of manipulation of the contract system. From 2007 to 2011, even with the Public Procurement Act 2007 and Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 instituted, non-adherence to statutory stipulations has persisted, as chief executives of ministries, departments and agencies, including ministers and permanent secretaries, remain lax.Corruption begins with the accounting officers in the MDAs who swell the payroll with names of ghost workers (and thus make recurrent expenditure burdensome). Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, cited this trend that is now endemic in the public service during her budget breakdown on December 14. She declared that it was shocking that the Federal Government had managed to survive the high level of graft on its payroll. Beyond the tier of payroll thieves are the chief executives of the MDAs who collude with some contractors to inflate project costs, while deactivating or bypassing internal control mechanismsfrom financial regulations and General Orders to due process.Jonathan himself acknowledged last year that project costs in Nigeria were much higher than what obtained in other West African countries. He said a sharp focus, hard work, determination and making careful choices could make some difference. But these are rather abstract when considered in relation to the underlying causes of under-performance in budget implementation. From 1999 to 2007, when the phenomenon of unspent funds became so pronounced, non-compliance with public service financial regulations, diversion of funds into private bank accounts, delays in the release of capital votes by the Ministry of Finance, questionable variations in contract values, victimisation of contractors averse to bribing of public officials, were established as major causes of poor implementation. The Institute of Management Consultants says the current contracting system in Nigeria is solidly anchored upon the rule of man.The Director-General of the Due Process Office, Emeka Eze, recently revealed how public officials sidelined due process in budget implementation. According to him, corruption and lack of integrity by government officials are the twin challenges to budget implementation, rather than a lack of capacity by the MDAs. Our inability to implement the budget goes beyond lack of capacity. What is lacking is integrity to follow due process and accountability. The ability to stand up and say, No, when one is under pressure to do what is wrong, he stated. The racket cuts across the entire chain of budget execution, including civil servants, permanent secretaries and ministers.But every failed budget from 1999 to date represents hope dashed and trust betrayed. With little to show for the trillions of naira squandered yearly in the name of budgets, the relevance of government is fast diminishing in the estimation of most citizens. The growing disenchantment among citizens has been appreciably communicated to The Presidency by the Senate President and House of Representatives Speaker.The Federal Government should strike back hard at corrupt officials. Nigerians have heard enough of presidential rhetoric. As official extortion erodes trust, fighting corruption in budget implementation will need more than one clever approach. Existing provisions of statutes/regulations that guarantee the attainment of budget objectives and ensure the dragons of graft and dishonesty are slain must be strictly enforced.Concrete, exemplary actions are also required from The Presidency. And for remedial action, the yearly reports of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, which catalogue unethical practices and infractions by public officials could be useful. There is an urgent need to restore the integrity and value for money in the award and execution of public contracts. The loopholes inherent in reckless and dubious processes involved in contract awards should be blocked. While the BMPIU should be strengthened, its long process of certification should be reformed.The nations notoriously slow judicial system in handling graft cases should also be rectified. The anti-corruption agencies, notably, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, have evidently had little inspiration from Jonathan to be functionally effective. A lot more is therefore expected from the political leadership to eliminate corruption and ensure scrupulous budget implementation.
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