Consultant condemns irregular fiscal/budget cycle

Mr Oseloka Obaze, a Good Governance and Policy Consultant, has said that the irregular fiscal/budget cycle by the Federal Government is negatively affecting the economy.

Oseloka, a former Secretary to Anambra State Government, made the observation at a Public Policy Forum, organised by the Economics Department of  Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, on Thursday.

He commended the presidency and the National Assembly for the successful passage of the 2017 budget but noted that the budget year had not been serving the intended fiscal period over the years.

The former diplomat said the Muhammadu Buhari  administration had not signed the budget on time and stressed that it was technically wrong to allow the budget of a particular year to get into the next year.

“Such policy decision makes nonsense of the established budgetary cycle, creates dissonance and room for fiscal abuses.

“The 2016 budget which had a deficit of N2.3 trillion  ran to June 2017; the 2017 budget, also with a deficit overhang of N2.2 trillion was only signed in June 2017 and is expected to run until June 2018.

“The decision to allow the 2017 budget to run to June 2018 makes nonsense of the established budgetary cycle, such truncation of federal budgetary cycle creates dissonance and room for fiscal abuses.

“ Moreover, the Federal Government has not indicated the performance level and exact funding of the 2016 budget; will the 2017 and 2018 budget run concurrently?

‘’Such overlap is dangerous as it will encourage double-dipping, duplication, self-administration and limited oversight,” he said.

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Obaze who is aspiring to be Anambra governor on the platform of PDP, said public policies must be informed by the true needs of the people and implemented dutifully with good feedback mechanism.

He described the cost of governance at the federal and state levels as high and called for greater efficiency in public resource management as well as transparency.

“Good public policies are society-centered and anchored on public interest, public participation and adaptive leadership.

“Efficient public policy must reflect priority, be properly formulated, and funded, faithfully implemented and consistently evaluated, through measurable benchmarks, feedback and auditing.

In her remarks, Dr  Uju Ezenekwe, the Head of the Department, said the ivory towers were poorly funded and called on government to prioritise the education sector .

“For instance, we just have three classrooms to cater to a four-year undergraduate programme in the Department of Economics.

“In a situation of classes holding simultaneously, the facility does not have that carrying capacity, yet we run post-graduate diploma programmes – a bridge programme; we run masters’ degree programmes in more than five specialisations.

“There is also doctoral programme, what is going on seems to be a mockery of education” she said.

Some academics at the forum were Prof. Stella Okunna, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr Uche Nwogwugwu , a former Head of the Department and Sub Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences among others.