Oscarline Onwuemenyi
01 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze, has stated that the Federal Government’s 2018 Budget cannot be padded.
Akabueze said this at a session on “Enhancing Media and Civil Society Organisations’s Understanding of Current Budget Issues and Reform Efforts” on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said budget padding, or insertion of unauthorised items in the 2018 budget, could not arise because MDA’s directly uploaded their budgets on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
GIFMIS is an IT based system for budget management and accounting that is being implemented by the Federal Government of Nigeria to improve Public Expenditure Management processes, enhance greater accountability and transparency across Ministries and Agencies.
He explained that GIFMIS is designed to make use of modern information and communication technologies to help the Government of Nigeria to plan and use its financial resources more efficiently and effectively.
Akabueze revealed that MDA’s Accounting Office and chief executives also signed to confirm the budget proposals before submission to the National Assembly.
“If there are issues, the MDA’s concerned are informed and made aware of any amendment of the budget. In recent years, the Federal Government budget attracts a lot of attention from media, CSO’s and the general public which is gladdening, because the budget seems to be an annual ritual.”
Akabueze said it was desirable that the budget attracted significant public attention. He noted that the Federal Government was open to receive questions on how the budget was allocated.
