BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

UNCLAS ABUJA 000184 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON PGOV NI SUBJECT: BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE PROPOSES MANDATORY RELEASE OF FUNDS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, NOT FOR PUBLICATION ON THE INTERNET OR INTRANET ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Gabriel Suswan, presented his Committee's white paper on the budget February 3, the result of a recent three-day retreat for members of his committee to prepare for the budget debate. Suswan declared that the Committee would insert a mandatory requirement in the budget to release funds by dates certain, and noted several problems the Committee had with the budget itself. The Chairman has not yet announced a timetable for the budget debate. End Summary. ¶2. (U) Members of the National Assembly's House Committee on Appropriations spent a three-day retreat during the Eid-el- Adha weekend in Makurdi, Benue State. The retreat was an opportunity for the members to discuss the budget recently submitted by the Presidency to the National Assembly. Chairman Gabriel Suswan announced after the retreat that the members had decided to insert a mandatory requirement into the budget to release funds for allocated expenditures by a designated date. The chairman has not announced a timetable for the House to vote on a revised budget, although it is believed that the due date for revisions will be moved to February 20. ¶3. (U) Chairman Suswan also mentioned a number of problems that the committee noted in the draft budget. They thought 33 percent allocation of government revenues for domestic debt service was far too high. He also noted that profits from the privatization program were not included in the draft as revenue, that there were several line items of capital expenditures for projects already abandoned in previous years, and that there was no mention of pension reform. ¶4. (SBU) Unfortunately for Nigeria, well over half of last year's budget has never been implemented; funds were never released to the ministries for the allocated line items within the budget. Given the GON's trend of the budget having little to do with how federal funds are actually spent, it will be an uphill fight on budget implementation and there is no certainty that the Committee's rather unsophisticated "set a date certain" approach to releasing funds will gain traction. ROBERTS