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Nigeria: Yar'Adua to Present Budget 2009 in October, Says Minister
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Vanguard (Lagos)
15 July 2008
Posted to the web 15 July 2008
Emma Ujah
The Federal Ministry of Finance, yesterday, commenced the 2009 Federal Government Budget process with the Minister, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, saying it would be ready for President Umaru Yar'Adua to present to the National Assembly in October.
Speaking at the opening of the Medium Term sector Strategy (MTSS) in Abuja, Dr. Usman said the Federal Government was starting early with a view to ensuing that the 2009 Appropriation Bill was passed by the legislators and assented to by the President before the end of December.
His words: "The immediate outcome of the 2009-2011 MTSS would be the 2009 Budget to be presented by Mr. President in early October to the National Assembly. The schedule of the MTSS has been deliberately designed to ensure that there would be sufficient time for the National Assembly to rigorously review and deliberate upon Mr. President's Budget proposals over the last quarter of 2008.
"We anticipate that the presidential assent would be given to the 2009 Appropriation Act by the end of 2008," he said.
The minister said the executive would strengthen collaboration with members of the National Assembly to enable them make inputs to the 2009 budget to avoid unnecessary disagreements when they get the Appropriation Bill.
"We believe that if both the executive and the legislature work together from the beginning of the budget process through its presentation at the National Assembly, we all would better appreciate the budget and there would be no need to introduce items that were not there and all that would be necessary would be a matter of crossing the T's and doting the I's," he said.
Dr. Usman said the Federal Government was moving away from incremental budgeting to a performance-based budget system and that the MTSS would be the focal point for planning and prioritising budgetary commitments.
"Our emphasis will increasingly be on ensuring greater results-orientation, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the government's development initiatives, and enhancing incentives for heightened stewardship and accountability in public expenditure management", he said.
Earlier, the Director-General Budget, Dr. Bright Okogu said his office would pay greater attention to accountability in budget implementation to ensure value for money in the application of available resources amidst competing needs.
"As part of the reforms in the Budget Office, we are moving toward a Performance Based Budgeting System (PBBS). The objective of the PBBS is to bring greater results-orientation and accountability to the budgeting process by focusing on what government achieves with the money it spends.
"It moves beyond the financial monitoring of expenditures to evaluating how well government programmes/projects work and to what extent budgets actually deliver services," Dr Okogu said.
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Speaking at the opening of the Medium Term Sector Strategy Speaking at the opening of the Medium Term sector (MTSS) in Abuja, Dr. Usman said the Federal Government was starting early with a view to ensuing that the 2009 Appropriation Bill was passed by the legislators and assented to by the President before the end of December.
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