FG urged to prioritise fiscal federalism, implementation of Fiscal Responsibility Act

Idayat Hassan, executive director, Centre for Democracy (CD), at the weekend stressed the need for the Federal Government to prioritise fiscal federalism, ensure strong implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) and diversification of the economy in the bid to mitigate the lingering economic crisis.
Hassan gave the charge while reacting to the 2015 budget estimates presented to the National Assembly for further legislative action.
Hassan in a chat with BusinessDay also punctured Federal Government’s sincerity towards the proposed austerity measures as encapsulated in the budget proposal and the anti-graft crusade.
“The 2015 budget does not reflect the announced austerity measure of the Federal Government to cushion the effect of the economic crunch.
“The reality on ground does not match what an austerity budget should represent. First and foremost, recurrent expenditure is higher than capital expenditure.
“Now looking at the proposed template, I see us being in a financial logjam while at the same time encouraging corruption.
“With this budget template, it is obvious the country will be borrowing a lot to finance its spending thereby taking us squarely back to our pre-debt forgiveness days. A movement must emerge to save the country.
“Above all, fiscal federalism, strong implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and diversification of the economy are measures that must be prioritised.
“Our history in the last years has been replete of MDAs not remitting monies or revenues into the government coffers.
“Two years ago, some MDAs refused to remit around N58 billion of such money into the consolidated revenue account. The last I heard about the incident is the recovery of N34 billion out of the N58 billion, whatever happened to plans to closing or to close the accounts of the affected MDAs we do not know.
“Even the House of Representatives’ Committee on Finance just last November identified several agencies for refusal to remit operating surpluses to the consolidated revenue account. Featured on the list are Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Asset Management Corporation (AMCON), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
“For instance, the NNPC has been enmeshed in scandals of refusal to remit monies due to consolidated revenue account for years, till date no action has been taken. Then you wonder if this scenario painting on 2015 budget is feasible with no strong fiscal responsibility on ground. Who will do the oversight? And how will it be implemented within the context of a country steeped in impunity. This government is not ready to fight corruption, the political-will is missing and that is what makes our work as civil society organisations very difficult,” Hassan argued.
While reiterating the commitment of the civil society organisations (CSOs) towards addressing major challenges confronting Nigeria, Hassan maintained that the “scandals are just too much, we are monitoring budget implementation on sectoral basis, we are looking at public service delivery, tax justice with general anti-corruption groups and coalitions on ground.
“However, the challenge is daunting, but mending the leakages is now an obvious task we all have to engage in.
“For long, we have been talking so much about corruption, but we have to expand the discourse to illicit financial flows and I can say boldly that illicit financial flow in the Nigerian context is monumental and takes varying dimensions.”