NASS, Sanusi and the Fiscal Discipline In Governance

The National Assembly is repositioning, so it seems. The NASS members have announced that they would lead a campaign to enthrone fiscal discipline in governance.
To start with, the Senate President David Mark told Nigerians that the National Assembly would cut its recurrent expenditure and would want other arms of government to make similar sacrifice. Was it a direct response to the Sanusi’s hurricane which blew open their outrageious spending? UCHENNA AWOM in this analysis x-rays the NASS offer and asks how real it is. Equally, would other arms of government do likewise?

President of the Senate, David Mark, could not have had a better opportunity to deliver a master stroke of public relations stunt for the National Assembly other than at the vantage point where President Goodluck Jonathan was about to present the 2011 budget bill to a joint session of the parliament.
Moreso, the Senate president may have also calculated that their arch foe in the ego war, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must have, as convention demands, accompanied the President to the occasion; and as such, would be there to see the lawmakers extract their pound of flesh from him.
He told the world that the lawmakers would lead the battle to enthrone fiscal discipline in governance, by the way of first cutting their recurrent expenditure and then invoke their oversight functions as enshrined in the constitution to force other arms of government to make similar sacrifice.
Mark said that based on the economic situation of the country and the need to channel scarce resources towards nation building, the cost of running government must be drastically cut down vertically and horizontally in the three arms of government, as well as the three tiers of the federating unit.
"Based on realities of our economic situation and the need to channel our scarce resources towards nation building, we must drastically cut down the cost of running government vertically and horizontally in the three arms of government, as well as the three tiers of our federating unit. In this regard, the National Assembly will lead the crusade. We will make the required sacrifice and review downwards our recurrent expenditure. We expect others to make similar sacrifice", he said.
The Senate president, however, charged President Jonathan who presented N4.2trillion 2011 budget to ensure full implementation, adding that the heart of good budget is an effective and efficient implementation, because poor budget implementation remains the bane of the nation’s economic and social development.
According to him the National Assembly is determined to raise the standard of budgetary process to a level far above the formalities of annual rituals.
"Mr. President, and as you know, the heart of a good budget is an effective and efficient implementation. Yet, poor budget implementation remains our nation’s economic and social development albatross, over which we all have poured songs of lamentations.
"We, in the Legislature therefore, are determined to raise the standard of our budgetary process to a level far above the formalities of annual rituals. We must give meaning and soul to our budgets to truly be the succour to the people’s economic stress and depression, to give hope and to be a soothing source of their faith in government. We owe this to the people we all represent. With a new conscientious conviction, commitment and vision, we must, and can accomplish this.
"Related to this, is the unacceptable disproportionate ratio of recurrent and overhead expenditure to capital expenditure. No nation desirous of meaningful development can afford such a disproportionate allocation of its financial resources between consumption and investment towards its own future development. This means that the cost of running government has been increasing at an unsustainable rate. We must all rise together and address it.
"The National Assembly in the discharge of its responsibilities, will, from the 2011 Appropriation Bill, re-evaluate these budget aggregates and other major macroeconomic variables across the board for all government MDAs and other arms of government to lower the personnel and overhead expenditures, and improve the level of appropriations for capital expenditures", he said.
Well, there is no doubt that Mark’s sermon was stoked and it was understandable giving the anger that preceded the allegation of Sanusi that the National Assembly lawmakers consume 25 percent of the national overhead. It was an allegation that provoked national debate, to the extent that there were calls in some quarters for the sacking of the National Assembly. They premised their position on the fact that since the national parliament has become a somewhat drainpipe on the national economy, it could be a welcome development if they are dispensed with.
Though the argument could easily pass as a conjecture from a largely uniformed segment of the society and also from a well informed -democracy-hungry public that refused to listen and analyze the truism in the Sanusi allegation; the truth was that the CBN governor rode the tide of the deluge of public opinion that was overwhelmingly skewed in his favour and made adequate use of the opportunity to increase the tempo in the now pristine buffeting of the national lawmakers.
In that case the only escape route was for the leadership of the parliament to toe the part of self Puritanism to make, at least, certain pronouncements that would encourage the Nigerian public to see reasons and perhaps begin to have a second look at the Sanusi’s allegation.
Though unconfirmed reports have it that the CBN governor has written officially to apologize for the comment that nearly developed a life of itself, the campaign against the lawmakers has continued unabated; and as such, the leadership was left with no other option than to appeal directly to the consciousness of the public. This Mark did. But to what extent would that help to calm or even sway the public?
Before his announcement, the Senate had told the Nigerian public that they were ready to cut down their earnings and was also prepared to publish their earnings; so long as other arms of government would agree to do the same.
There are very strong indications that the pronouncements have been backed by action as reports strong suggest that they have cut their recurrent by as much as 30 percent. Going by the budget breakdown, the National Assembly is now expected to get a total recurrent (non-debt) expenditure of N108billion as against N150billion in 2010.
However, the "sacrifice" is not without its collateral damage to the civil servants who before now have been having field day with little or no check at all in their budget. The National Assembly members are all out ready to start performing their real functions of checking the perceived excesses of the executive. In that case the feelers are that the lawmakers would be quite meticulous in drilling the executive during the budget defense processes; that is to say the public would perhaps be treated to a cocktail of revelations on how the nations collective patrimony are frittered on the altar of wholesome corruption.
These, they threaten, will include the CBN and all other agencies whose allocations were hitherto not subjected to legislative scrutiny, but which have now been included courtesy of the fiscal responsibility Act. It will indeed mark a new beginning in the effort at enthroning fiscal discipline in governance.

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