SECONDLY, zero based budgeting requires specific training especially as it is different from the traditional or incremental budgeting that has been used over the years in Nigeria.
Additionally, the amount of information required to back up zero based budgeting is huge and can overwhelm public servants that are not used to this kind of budgeting.
Finally, it must be recognised that it is difficult and problematic for departments with intangible outputs like education, health and value re-orientaion to justify every line item.
This is a commendable move by the federal government. Indeed, it is another success story of advocacy by civil society. We have argued in the past, “in some way, it can be said that the national budget in Nigeria is a copy and paste job because of the type of budgeting that is done in the country. The type of budgeting that is practised in Nigeria is line budgeting. This kind of budgeting does not require justification from the scratch as in zero-based budgeting or linkage to performance as in performance budgeting. The end result is that the line budgets are increased slightly or decreased depending on the priorities.”
Although the adoption of zero based budgeting is a commendable initiative by the federal government, there are requirements for the successful implementation of zero based budgeting as noted above. Moreover, the problems of the budgetary process in Nigeria go beyond the type of budgeting adopted. As noted above, there are problems with citizen participation, openness of the budget, priorities, frivolous expenditure and effective oversight.
The federal government must go beyond the announcement of the adoption of zero based budgeting to implement a comprehensive reform of the budgetary process in line with its change agenda. First and foremost, for any government to be able to effectively check performance in relation to budget, it must answer the following questions:
• Is the budgeted amount adequate? Is it enough?
• How does the allocation to one sector compare with others? For instance, Health and Education compared with the Presidency or Defence?
• What are allocations to particular sectors?
• Is there allocation to improve on particular sectors?
• Is there transparency in the allocation of funds and expenditure? Is there accessibility of data used in preparing the budget?
• Are the right programmes or mix of interventions being funded to have the largest impact in dealing with the major developmental challenges of the country?
• Is there value for money? Are there wastages?
• Is the budget meeting its target goals/ outputs?
• What impact has the budget had on the lives of the citizens and the economy?
• Are resources being allocated fairly?
• Are there specific allocations targeting vulnerable groups?
Secondly, the Federal Government should reform the budget process to make it open, transparent and participatory so that it will be people driven.
Thirdly, the payment system should be reformed. The procedures of receiving monies from the public and for making payments to them should be made transparent and accountable. In this regard, government should institutionalise progressive taxation, introduce property tax and ensure effective tax collection mechanism.
Fourthly, there is the need for strengthening of government accounting and financial reporting. This involves the procedure for recording, communicating, summarising, analysing and interpreting financial statement of government. The system should have integrity. Fifthly, government should strengthen the office of the auditor general and auditing process carried out by qualified auditors on the records and financial statements of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to express an opinion on it. The challenge of auditing in Nigeria is the absence of value for money. This should be introduced. In addition, enabling environment should be provided for legislative oversight. In every modern democracy, the legislature has a great role to play in ensuring transparency and accountability in the budgetary process. In this regard, there is the need to strengthen the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The convention is that opposition party heads the PAC. Moreover, enabling environment should be provided for civil society and media to play their roles as watchdog of the society including legislative oversight. In this regard, the federal government should immediately constitute the procurement council with representatives of civil society and media in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007.
Another important area is the strengthening of the laws to protect whistle blowers. Finally, government should institutionalise monitoring and evaluation with strong internal control and integrity systems.
The budget is very important for the development of any country. The efficacy of the budget determines the success of governments in meeting societal needs. There is a process of making budget, which should be open, transparent and participatory in order to bring about development. Unfortunately, despite the enormous resources in Nigeria, the country and its people are poor partly because of corruption, secrecy in the budget process and poor public finance management. This is why open budget is a necessity for development in Nigeria.
Anyone interested in the development of Nigeria must join the movement for open budget in Nigeria. The adoption of zero-based budgeting by the federal government is a commendable move. But there are many problems affecting the budgetary process. The federal government should go beyond the adoption of zero based budgeting to implement a comprehensive budgetary reform in Nigeria.
• Concluded