Zainab Ahmed, minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, has attributed revenue shortfall being experienced by the federal government as a major reason it has not been able to fulfill the provision of the law that says allocations to the National Assembly and the Judiciary be released in full.
Ahmed was responding to an allegation by the green chamber that the ministry of finance withheld full releases to the National Assembly and the Judiciary over the past years. It was a subject of fierce backlash at the House of Representatives last week.
Members had raised concerns over flagrant flouting of a constitutional provision. They said it has badly affected their ability to pay their aides and staff of the National Assembly, leaving them at the risk of groveling at the feet of the executive for funds. This, they believe, is not good for separation of powers.
“For whatever reason, the releases were short. The finance minister failed to release funds (in full),” Babangida Ibrahim (APC, Katsina), who moved a motion on the matter last week, said, adding that the issue had been pending since the 8th Assembly.
However, the finance minister through her special adviser, Yunusa Abdullahi, has denied withholding the funds.
“Budget implementation is a subject of resources and the government is doing its utmost to manage available scarce resources,” she told PREMIUM TIMES.
She said while most of the other agencies got an average of 50 percent of their capital budgets in 2019, those under statutory transfers got an average of 85 percent of their budgets.