There are strong indications that the bulk of N2.079t released by the Ministry of Finance as at May 14 for the implementation of projects by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) may still be lodged at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Minister of Finance Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, last week, said that the amount was for the implementation of projects captured under capital votes in the 2018 fiscal spending plan by the MDAs.
But snippets from the Third Quarter 2018 budget implementation report exclusively obtained by The Guardian indicate that Jubril (President Muhammadu Buhari)’s ministers may have been largely indolent, as very little of actual work has been done.
No thanks to their inability to draw the funds released by the Federal Government to remediate the ugly situation in the country and better the lot of the citizenry.
According to the reports obtained from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) and the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), only one agency, that is the Public Complaints Commission, which is not among big spending MDAs was able to access its budgetary allocation during the period and deployed it.
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The other MDAs, including key spending Ministry of Defence; Ministry of Works, Power and Housing; Education Ministry; Health Ministry; Niger Delta Ministry and that of the Federal Capital Territory, either recorded below average of 32 per cent, or average execution at the end of the third quarter on September 30 last year.
All these are happening in the face of daunting challenges, ranging from worsening insecurity, poor healthcare services and falling standard of education.
Perhaps, the low utilisation of released funds by MDAs explains Ahmed’s inability to give highlights of projects for which the said N2.079t was expended on, last Thursday.
According to the reports, a total of ₦441.84b was released and cash-backed to MDAs for their 2018 capital projects and programmes. The sum of ₦356.72b was released in the first batch or warrant, and ₦85.02b as Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIEs). But implementation was discouragingly dismal.
The Director-General of the BOF, Ben Akabueze, however blamed the poor execution on the late passage of the 2018 budget, which forced the implementation of the 2017 spending plan to spill over to 2018.