DELAYS in the submission and approval of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework have led to late budget implementation and ill execution of development plans, this is according to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC).FRC Commissioner, Monitoring and Evaluation, Alhaji Shuaibu Abdullahi Kore, while presenting a report at the Commission's recently concluded Management retreat at Lafia, Nasarawa State, revealed that delays in time and activities, wide variances in revenue returns, slow submission/publication of reports, low response to communication and low capital expenditure utilization were to blame for budget delays.The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007 provides that the Federal Government, after Consultation with states, shall not later than four months before the commencement of the next Financial year, cause to be prepared a Medium Term Framework for the next three years. The Fiscal Responsibility Commission is empowered to ensure that the Framework is produced.According to the report presented at the retreat, which was chaired by Chairman of the Commission, Dr Aliyu Jibril Yelwa, the 2011 budget was largely in line with the 2011-2013 MTEF, the MTEF 2012 ' 2015 covered four years contrary to the provision of FRA, 2007 which stipulates that MTEF should be prepared for the next three years.The report which frowned at non-compliance with the preparation of Disbursement Schedule by the Ministry of Finance, a situation it attributed to delays in the passage of the appropriation Acts and poor attitude of officers charged with the responsibilities and admitted that late production had always resulted in late passage of annual budgets.It also added that the MTEF 2012 -2015 as presented was deficient in content and details suggesting non-compliance with FRA, 2007.The report showed that despite concerted efforts by the Commission, it is yet to obtain any record of transactions for the sale of federal government houses from the Presidential Implementation Committee. The Commission is however meeting with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) over the privatisation proceeds of a number of government companies.On revenue monitoring, the report indicated that revenue monitoring peaked during the year as more MDAS contacted by the Commission made increased revenue returns to government coffers. It gave the total revenues remitted to the treasury by the MDAs in 2011as N11, 017,716,440.57 as against N2, 583,906,352.94 remitted in 2010.The report detailed the Commission's preparedness to generate more civil society interest in FRA compliance and stressed the need to utilize the FRA as a tool to institutionalise better public expenditure management nationwide.While stating that compliance by MDAs has improved in recent time, it stressed the need for relevant MDAs to be involved in target setting and should reflect level of activities.Compliance with time-lined activities, according to the report, needs to be improved, as delays invariably affects the entire budget planning and implementation process.It finally stated that while performance has not been spectacular given that the Commission is barely 3 years old, there have been improvements in the budget process.
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