Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have got N139,265,641,362 for the execution of capital projects in the first quarter.
The letter “1st Quarter Development Fund General Warrant No. 01/2015” from the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia, authorised the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to release the money to the MDAs.
The AGF was “authorized and required to pay from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government of Nigeria such monies as are necessary for carrying on the services of Government of the Federation at a level not exceeding the amount showing against, the expenditure items indicated in the schedule in the subsequent pages of this Development Fund General Warrant for a grand total sum of N139,265,641,362 (One hundred and thirty nine billion, two hundred and sixty-five million, six hundred and forty – one thousand, three hundred and sixty-two naira) only for the period of the first quarter ending March, 2015.”
Mrs Daniel-Nwaobia also instructed the AGF that “this total amount being released from consolidated Revenue Fund is inclusive of the sum of N12,500,000,000 (Twelve billion, five hundred million naira only) released to 2015 Zonal/Constituency Projects and N12,500,000,000 (Twelve billion, five hundred million) only released to 2014 constituency/intervention projects.”
In addition, the Development Fund General Warrant also authorised Officers controlling expenditure votes to “incur expenditure under the Heads and Sub-heads under their control up to the limit against the expenditure item shown on the subsequent pages to this Development Fund General Warrant for the period of the First Quarter ending March, 2015.”
With this warrant authorising the release of funds to MDAs, execution of capital projects can now commence. The delay in the release of the 2015 capital allocation has resulted in many workers in the construction industry being laid off.
The National Assembly passed the 2015 budget on April 28, with an expenditure outlay of N4.493 trillion, up from the N4.425 trillion proposed by the Executive.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan signed the budget early May 2015, but politicking and handing over preparations stalled the implementation of the budget before President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office.
The National Assembly, when it passed the budget, slightly reduced the N2,607,601, 000,300 proposed by the Executive to N2.607,132,491,708 as recurrent expenditure and also reduced the capital expenditure from N642,848,999,699 estimated in the proposal to N556,995,465,449.
The budget also put fiscal deficit at N1.075 trillion; N953 billion for debt service and N375.6 billion as statutory transfers.
The 2016 budget, The Nation learnt, will be very tight as there are plans to further reduce recurrent expenditure in all MDAs. One ministry considered to be one of light money spenders has been pencilled down among others to shed N50 million from its recurrent expenditure in 2016.
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