GROUP GIVES BUDGET OFFICE TWO WEEKS ULTIMATUM TO PUBLISH IMPLEMEMTATION REPORT

The Centre for Social Justice on Wednesday gave the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Bright Okogu, two weeks to publish the Budget Monitoring and Implementation Report, or risk prosecution.
The Abuja-based civil society group working for the promotion of public finance management and fiscal governance reforms accused the Federal Ministry of Finance of violating the fiscal responsibility law by refusing to publish the report as at when due.
The reports for the third and fourth quarters of 2014 has been overdue for almost seven months, while those of the first and second quarters of 2015 are behind statutory schedule by about 30 days.
Section 30(1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007 demands that “the Minister of Finance, through the Budget Office of the Federation, shall monitor and evaluate the implementation of the
Annual Budget; assess the attainment of fiscal targets, and report thereon on a quarterly basis to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the Joint Finance Committee of the National Assembly.”
The Act also demands that “the Minister of Finance shall cause the report to be prepared pursuant to subsection(1) of this section to be published in the mass and electronic media and on the Ministry of Finance website, not later than 30 days after the end of each quarter.”
These regulations are aimed at promoting greater transparency and accountability in the management of public finances and other resources in the country.
The FRA also seeks to introduce evidence based budget decision making, which would lead to improvements in the livelihoods of Nigerians.
In a petition to the Budget Office of the Federation in Abuja, Lead Director of CENSOJ, Eze Onyekpere, expressed regrets that the last published Budget Implementation Report was on the second quarter 2014 budget.
Mr. Onyekpere pointed out that section 30 of the FRA, reinforced by section 50, imposes a duty on the Budget Office of the Federation to publish a summarised report on budget execution within 30 days at the end of each quarter.
The published report, which must be prepared in a form prescribed by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, must be published not later than six months after the end of the financial year.
The consolidated budget execution report showing implementation against physical and financial performance targets, the FRA law stipulates, shall be published by the Minister of Finance for submission to the National Assembly and dissemination to the public.
Mr. Onyekpere blamed the failure to publish the report on neglect and the refusal of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office to perform a statutory duty to the detriment of Nigerian citizens.
“Our rights as law abiding Nigerians to fiscal information has been violated and this is not a situation that should be allowed to continue.
“Considering that the Budget Office of the Federation is maintained at the tax payers’ expense, the Director-General and other officers in the office have no alternative, but to do the bidding of tax payers, which is to perform their statutory duty,” he said.
Consequently, the group demanded that the reports be prepared immediately and forwarded to the National Assembly, Fiscal Responsibility Commission as well as publicly disseminated within two weeks.
“If the Budget Office of the Federation refuses, or unable to publish the reports within the stated period, we shall be compelled to invoke section 51 of the FRA to compel the performance of the duties,” the group threatened.