2011 Budget Recorded 80% Implementation, Says Minister

Minister of State, Finance Dr. Yerima Ngama,? said in Abuja yesterday that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) achieved 80 per cent implementation of the 2011 budget.

Yerima made the observation on the occasion of the public presentation of the 2012 budget, which was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan last Friday.

Jonathan assented to the N4.6 trillion budget, which had an additional 180 billion naira for special programmes, based on the oil benchmark of 72 dollar per barrel.

Ngama said the 2011 budget, passed in June 2011, was loaded with many new projects, which forced the government to go into virements.

Notwithstanding these challenges, he said the MDAs achieved a record budget implementation of 80 per cent by December 2011, up from below 40 per cent in November of the same year.

He lauded the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for coming out with a report on how to galvanise efforts to implement the budget.

The minister said Okonjo-Iweala encouraged the MDAs to study and follow up on the report.

“It was like a magic that in 30 days when we called all the heads of the MDAs to come and explain why they were below 40 per cent implementation, it turned out that in 30 days most of them had achieved 80 per cent budget implementation.

“This is because we already had works completed, certified and waiting for payment but we had a budget last year which allocated most of the funding to works that we have not yet started.

“Immediately the virement was made, there were enough projects waiting for the money and that is why in 30 days we moved from 40 per cent implementation to about 80 per cent implementation by December ending.’’

Ngama said the 2012 budget would be primarily focused on completing ongoing viable projects.