Lawmakers, ministers meet over 2010 Budget

The leadership of the House of Representatives and the chairmen and deputy chairmen of the standing committees began a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Mansur Muktar, and his National Planning counterpart, Shamsudeen Usman, on the 2010 Budget and the Mid-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) yesterday.

The Deputy Speaker, Usman Nafada, led the lawmakers to the meeting held behind closed-doors, which lasted for several hours and was later adjourned till today. The meeting was held at the National Assembly complex. Although, they refused to speak to journalists after the meeting, it was gathered that the meeting was stormy, coming on the heels of the lawmakers’ recent criticism of the government’s fiscal policy.

Following a motion sponsored on the floor, the lawmakers also frowned at the failure of the Executive and the Finance Ministry to implement the Fiscal Responsibility Act which was passed by President Yar’Adua on June 30, 2007. The Act provides that the Finance Minister should lay the expenditure framework before the legislators four weeks before the presentation of the budget for the fiscal year. According to Part A, Section 11 (1) and (2) of the Act, when laid before the legislators, it would give them adequate room to study the document.

Poor budget performance

It was also gathered that at the Tuesday meeting, the lawmakers expressed disappointment with the ministers over the dismal performance of the 2009 Budget put at less than 40 per cent implementation, just as they complained about the partial implementation of the constituency projects under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Amina Az-Zubair, Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, who was also at the meeting further clarified the issue to the lawmakers even though she had addressed journalists on the matter last Friday. The meeting reportedly spent more time discussing the benchmark for the 2010 Budget, the reason the meeting was adjourned till today. Mr. Nafada was said to have appealed to the minister to adhere to budgetary provisions as passed by the National Assembly. President Umaru Yar’Adua is expected to present the 2010 Budget before a joint session of the National Assembly on November 19.