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Senators’ comments on budget inaccurate – Okonjo-Iweala

By on February 8, 2014

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Thursday faulted the debate on the 2014 budget by some senators.

The minister stated that the debate was not only personalised, but was also based on inaccurate information.

She described the development as unfortunate, adding that most of the factors that led to the high recurrent expenditure in this year’s budget were not her making.

The minister had in the last week come under attack from lawmakers, who accused her of producing a budget that was against the interest of the country.

While some of them described the budget as “anti-people,” others said it was based on the principles of “Okonjonomics” and called for the rejection of the fiscal document.

Some senators had accused Okonjo-Iweala of being responsible for the rising recurrent expenditure, which, according to them, rose from 69 per cent in the 2013 budget to 76 per cent in the 2014 budget.

But reacting through a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, the minister said the lawmakers’ comments were inaccurate.

While acknowledging that the budget had some imperfections, which the ministry was working hard to fix, Okonjo-Iweala said the large number of positives in terms of policies and resources must not be forgotten.

According to her, in addition to the N18.5bn set aside for the housing sector, the 2014 budget will leverage over N100bn for a new mortgage refinance company that will create millions of jobs and provide affordable homes for millions of Nigerians.

The statement read in part, “The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has roundly refuted several personalised allegations against her by some senators during the recent Senate budget debate.

“While thanking the majority of the senator, who understand the issues at stake, she states that a few made allegations and accusations not based on fact.

“Though government is continuous and the minister has no desire to shirk her responsibilities, the effort to personalise these issues on the basis of inaccurate information is unfortunate and must be roundly refuted.”

The minister said while it was important to debate the budget, doing so in a way that would misinform Nigerians and demonise some individuals would not help to develop the economy.

She said, “While it is important for us to debate the budget, it also behoves us not to misinform Nigerians, demonise individuals based on false information and mischaracterise the nature of budget development in the country.

“A large number of lies are being told against the budget by those who do not care about the impact of their falsehood on the economy and the image of the country.”

On the reason for the high recurrent expenditure in this year’s budget proposal, Okonjo-Iweala insisted that the 53 per cent salary increase across board for public service personnel, which raised the wage bill from N856.9bn in 2009 to N1.36tn in 2010, was responsible for the increase.

She said, “The fact is that during 2010, the government awarded a salary increase of 53 per cent across the board to the public service, which increased the wage bill from N856.9bn in 2009 to N1.36tn in 2010.

“At the time, finances were inadequate to back this award, and the government had to increase domestic borrowing significantly to cover the shortfall.

“This rise in government domestic borrowing from N524bn in 2009 to N1.36tn in 2010, is also the singular cause of the country’s rising domestic debt profile from 14.83 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product in 2009 to 17.98 per cent of the GDP in 2010.

“The rise in salaries is also reflected by the sharp increase in the recurrent expenditure to 74.4 per cent in 2011.”

She also noted that the country had yet to fully absorb the pension implications of the 2010 wage increase.

For instance, the minister said since last year, the Federal Government had commenced the process of tackling the payment of outstanding military pensions.

Okonjo-Iweala said the government had been under pressure from many quarters, including legislators, to integrate the civilian component of the pension, noting that doing so would further increase the recurrent budget.

 

 

[Punch]

One Comment

  1. Abigael

    February 8, 2014 at 8:17 pm

    Seriously, the heavy rain of critical remarks against the Finance Minister and the 2014 budget is unfair and ill-intentioned.