President Goodluck signed the 2012 appropriation bill
into law in April some four month into the budget year. Notwithstanding the
outrage expressed by Nigerians, the national Assembly passed the budget,
ignoring the concerns that the budget was flawed abinitio. Members failed in
their key role to strip the budget of profligate and corrupt entries. They
talked the talk, but lacked the steel and courage to walk the walk. Yet again,
another opportunity was missed. One often wonders if legislators have the
training expertise and support to property scrutinize the budget or perhaps
they just choose to ignore the concerns of Nigerians about corruption. The
truth may lie somewhere in the middle.
The tragedy of our current political
system is the complete absence of an effective political opposition. The result
is that budget proposals are not subject to proper scrutiny, nor is the
executive sufficiently held to account, at federal, state or local government
tier. There is the usual outcry by Nigerians, but in the end the deep concerns
of the people are swallowed up in compromise, akin to the election of the
Peoples Democratic Party chairman recently. Much ado about nothing.
All democracies need an effective
opposition to check the excesses of government. perhaps the Parliamentary
System adopted by our founding fathers would have served our democracy better.
It would have compelled ministers and indeed the President to come to the
National Assembly to defend the budget and respond to the observations of
Nigerians. Instead, we have a political opposition that is ineffective, leaving
the press and the civil society as the only credible opposition, hollering, as
it were, from the sidelines.
We must now look forward to 2013 and
hope for the best from Jonathan and his economic management team. The President
must now focus his energies to ensure that Nigeria has a more robust budget for
2013. He must address public concerns about the huge cost of running government
and the duplication of services in ministries and parastatals. The government
must look at releasing more resources from efficiency drives in the public
sector to fund investment in infrastructure.
Abuja- The Senate, yesterday, passed the budget of N4,877,
209,156,933 for the 2012 fiscal year, just as it plans to sue the Central Bank
of Nigeria, CBN, over repeated failure to submit its budget to National
Assembly for approval.
The new budget passed was N229 billion higher than the
revised budget of N4.648 trillion sent to the National Assembly in February by
President Goodluck Jonathan.
The budget includes an upward review of oil benchmark
of $70 bpd proposed by President Jonathan to $72bpd which is to help reduce
provision for deficit budget of N1.162 trillion by N98 billion.
It also includes N888 billion funding for oil subsidy
programme, beside another N180 billion provided for subsidy re-investment
programme, Sure.
Senators, during the clause-by-clause consideration of
the budget after its presentation by chairman, senate committee on
appropriation, Ahmad Maccido underscored the poor performance of the 2011
budget.
Other details of the 2012 budget, according to him,
include crude oil production at 2.48 mbpd, which was the same as the
executive’s proposal; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate at 7.2 per cent:
Inflation rate at 9.5 per cent and exchange rate at N155.
Budget
Passed Without Significant Changes
Maccido who spoke to newsmen after the passage of the
budget noted that the budget was passed without significant changes by the
Senate and stressed that the executive now had the liability to ensure full
implementation of the budget.
Delay In
Budget Presentation
He said the committee had expressed concern on the
delay of budget presentation by the executive, while advising that budget
should be presented to National Assembly before the end of the fiscal year to enable
passage within the on-going fiscal year.
At the conclusion of the budget, Senate President,
David Mark, tasked the executive to be prompt in the submission of budget,
while stressing the need for government to reduce deficit funding.
He said: “I hope the 2013 budget will be submitted
latest by September to give the National Assembly enough time to work and pass
it within the year.
“We must reduce deficit as much as possible, we are
better off by having a reduced deficit. I hope that 2013 budget will take that
into consideration”
The
difference between private and public finance is include:-
(1) Nature of income: income of an
individual is fixed tot eh extent of his earning capacity. It is thus
inelastic. But the income of an authority is quite elastic the introduction of
a new tax or a slight increase in the rate of the tax, particularly on
commodity with inelastic demand, opens up fresh resources for the public
authority. Thus an individual is always faced with the problem of “unlimited
ends and scarce mean” but no such problem exists for the state.
(2) Manner of Budgeting: Surplus budgeting is a virtues for an
individual but not for a public authority for a public authority, it is
regarded as a sign of unsound economic policy and gives the impression that
government lacks imagination and proper sense of estimation. Rather balanced
budget is regarded as a correct policy for the government.
(3) Deficit Financing: Another
difference between public finance and private finance is that the state can resort
to deficit financing i.e creation of money the state has the forces of law and
can use coercive methods to collect income. But the individual has no such
authority. He has to depend on his own efforts to make earnings possible.
(4) Period of Time: Estimation of
income and expenditure in respect of public authority is always related to a
specific period of time- normally a year but there is no hard and fast rule in
the period of budgeting of an individual in fact an individual does not attach
any special importance to period to time.
(5) Nature of Loans: In the event of
a deficit, the state can meet the deficit both by internal and external and
external borrowing i.e it can borrow both from its own national as well as from
outside the country. An individual can however, obtain only external loan, i.e
he can borrow only form other persons not from himself.
FACULTY:
SOCIAL SCIENCE
DEPT: SOCIOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY
COURSE: INTRODUCTION
TO SOCIAL WORK
EBONYI STATE UNIVERSITY ABAKALIKI
ASSOCIATED QUESTION
(1) WHAT IS SOCIAL WORK
(2) OBJECTIVE OF SOCIAL WORK
(3) FUNCTION OF SOCIAL WORK
(4) ORIGIN OF SOCIAL WORK