David Ugolor, executive director, Afri Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), said political office holders must make more sacrifices.Do you agree that there are areas of waste in government budgets; can you identify such areas'YES, there are obvious areas of wastage in the 2012 budget proposal that President Jonathan sent to the National Assembly. As usual, the administrative overhead of the National Assembly and the Presidency is too high. For instance, the Presidency intends to spend about N1.3 billion on foodstuff, refreshment, computers and furniture. Such items cannot be justified and it is a waste in a country like Nigeria, where majority of her citizen don't have access to basic necessities of life.The about N1.3 billion comprise N500 million for foodstuff, N293 million for refreshment, N265 million for purchase of computers etc. Some of these items were in the 2011 budget and were also purchased.Again, a line item 'welfare packages' is virtually provided for every Ministry, Department and Agency. The welfare of the staff of MDAs is already provided for in the personnel cost reflecting as salaries and wages and other perks of office. All the welfare packages put together run into billions of naira in a supposed budget of 'fiscal consolidation'.The following requests for refreshment and meals are also in the budget; the Ministry of Finance Headquarters ' N74.4m; Budget Office of the Federation-N215.5m; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation-N30.3m; Interior-N17.1m; Aviation-N14.5m; Mines and Steel-N13.6m, etc. It is understandable that these MDAs will hold meetings and events that will need catering services, but definitely not of the magnitude and quantum of resources that they are demanding.There are other areas of wastages, which the National Assembly should scrutinize and possibly reduce and re-allocate such funds to capital projects.The presidency and National Assembly should cut down on their recurrent expenditure, including their huge allowance and re-allocate such funds to capital projects. The National Assembly should also ensure that they properly scrutinize the budget, such that areas of waste, which have been identified are cleared and redistributed to other areas like education, health, road, transportation etc needing urgent attention.Government has the tendency to go outside the budget and sometime, some allocations don't get utilised; what can be done to address this impunity'This scenario is typical of 2011 budget implementation, where government allocated N345 billion for payment of subsidy on petroleum, but ended up paying N1.3 trillion as at October and some arrears of N155billion still put in 2012 budget.In any case, budget implementation in Nigeria has been poor and it is important that the National Assembly steps up their oversight function on the executive as regard budget implementation and if possible, sanction heads of MDAs where there are obvious cases to set example for others.Would the 25 percent cut in basic salary for political office holders significantly reduce cost of governance'No, the truth is that other allowances should also be cut. In fact, the salaries and allowances of our Senators and members of House of Representatives should also be affected. It is important to state that 25percent reduction in the basic salary of political office holders is insignificant compared to the wastage in other overhead cost captured in the budget.Interestingly, the basic salary of these politicians is just for record purpose, the bulk of the money in the overhead cost goes to other allowances. If Nigeria must make progress, we must all make sacrifices. The masses have already made significant sacrifice for accepting the increase in the pump price of petrol from N65 to N97, which has caused untold hardship to Nigerians, occasioned by the hike in transportation, with multiplying effect on prices of food and other basic items.We expect the President and other political appointees as well as legislators to sacrifice significant portion of their salary and other allowances so that Nigeria can move forward.Some have argued that the country does not need a bicameral legislature; what political restructuring would you recommend in order to save substantial funds for capital expenditure'There is nothing wrong with a bicameral legislature, which Nigeria is currently practicing; the issue is that of leadership. If we are able to have leaders who are elected on the basis of their ideology and the substance of their campaign package and who are also willing to serve, things will move forward in Nigeria.Majority of our elected leaders at the three ties of government are there because of what they stand to benefit and not what they can offer. That is why you see that elections in Nigeria are a do or die affair and ones you win, you are able to steal money and amass wealth for their family.In any case, the number of political appointees is alarming, ranging from ministers, presidential aides and others; we need to cut down on the number of ministries ' if possible merge some.The Budget Office, Bureau of Public Procurement, NEITI, and Fiscal Responsibility Commission were all established to ensure transparency, but instead of curbing corruption, more funds are being stolen. Why are these institutions not working'I don't totally agree that these institutions are not working but they have not done enough. Remember that critical laws and institutions will have no significant effect if the actors do not show strong will to follow up with the issues. Recall that NEITI has made progress with the audit of the oil industry, but the government has not followed with most of NEITI's recommendations.If you look through NEITI audit reports up till 2008, you will notice that there are similar recommendations.Up till now, the National Council on Procurement has not been constituted as provided for by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007. Procurement processes in Nigeria are still been manipulated partly because of political patronage. In most cases, contracts are been awarded based on party affiliations and other issues but not on merit. This will not take us anywhere.So, the issue with us is that of leadership and bad governance, if we have good leaders who are selfless and determined to fight corruption, we will achieve results.You see, we need to do more than just enact laws and set up agencies; we need to also demonstrate enough political will and strengthen Anti-Corruption Agencies so that they can investigate and prosecute cases efficiently.
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