May 29: LCCI calls for capacity building on budget processes for legislature, executive
NAN-HE-2
Budget
By- Oluwafunke Ishola
Lagos, May 28, 2017 (NAN) Mr Muda Yusuf, Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), says there is urgent need for capacity building for the legislative and executive arms to ensure timely passage of annual budgets.
Yusuf made the suggestion at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Lagos on Sunday while reviewing the two-year performance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
According to the director-general, lack of adequate capacity in budget processes, to a large extent, is responsible for delayed budget passage in the country.
He said that in other climes, the preparation of 2018 budget would be nearing completion by now, while the 2017 budget in Nigeria was still being discussed.
NAN reports that the preparation of annual budgets in Nigeria has always become issues between the executive and the legislature arms, leading to delayed passage and implementation of annual budgets.
“We have seen situations where the budget document presented by the executive arm was shoddily prepared and the document had to be taken back.
“We have also seen a situation where a minister gets to the National Assembly and disown the budget of his ministry, saying he was not aware of some of the budget inputs.
“These are capacity problems. The quality of documents presented matters because if we present a budget that is shoddily prepared, it will cause unnecessary delays.
“The National Assembly should also be trained on the processes because the power of appropriation in a presidential system lies with them,” he said.
According to him, the National Assembly must develop the capacity to analyse budget documents thoroughly and make the right recommendations.
Yusuf also called for discipline in adhering to timeline in the preparation of the budget at the executive and legislative levels.
He said that over the years, budget delay and poor implementation had sabotaged infrastructure development and led to increasing cost of doing business in the country.
Yusuf said that if this problem was solved, government’s output would increase and impact positively on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as boost investor confidence (NAN)
AIO/JI/TA
Editing by Joseph Idika/Tajudeen Atitebi