Sam Kaye
The Permanent Secretary, Borno Ministry of Budget and Planning Dr Peter Solomon has called on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) in the state to retire their budgetary allocations to assist the Ministry plan effectively for the next fiscal year.
Granting an interview during a pre-budget workshop for directors of finance, planning and budget officers Tuesday in Maiduguri, Dr Solomon stressed that the performance of the budget and the 25 year Borno development plan cannot be assessed effectively if erring parastatals refused to retire details of their funds allotted to them on a yearly basis.
While responding to a question by this reporter on the performance of the budget, the permanent secretary stated that the ministry can only assess performance “high or low” when releases of retirements get to them as at when due.
He added that performance cannot be read directly because their sister finance ministry hardly get the needed retirements as at when due. ” We have hammered on this but we don’t know what else can be done to increase their ability to retire their budgetary allocations. They just keep dragging their feet and dragging us backwards.
“Every Ministry is expected to retire at least by the first week of the following month so we expect these retirements to take on a timely basis but we are not seeing the timely reports as expected yet we are already talking of fixing a new budget. Retirements is about how far we have been able to go in the business of budgeting for the state and don’t forget we have a supplementary budget which we have been planning even before the flood came around to destabilize the entire system.” Said Solomon.
The Permanent Secretary regretted that in spite of the fact that there may be many challenges to surmount as a new ministry, the inability of ministries to retire their budgetary funding is a big challenge which they are taxed with.
Dr Solomon however noted that performance can easily be assessed by the approval of the Governor Professor Babagana Zulum and these approvals will tell you about what will be carried out on the ground. And then after the approvals, you will have to also consider also the issue of what has been released and how effectively the projects have been carried out.
“Look at those gigantic schools the Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum is building all over the place. It is obvious that contractors would not have been able to work if these monies were not released in time.Once monies are released, it is always expected that these projects will be carried out. That is what has been going on in the state because his excellency does not waste time to approve as long as he believes the project like all those bridges affected by the flood must be repaired so that commuters can enjoy using these facilities.” said the permanent secretary.
On the new monitoring and evaluation department, the permanent secretary said that since that department has been transferred to their ministry, they have been trying their best to meet up the challenges of the MDA’s since the budget ministry is a young ministry.
“It is just recently that we were told to take over the monitoring and evaluation department but with workshops like these and the town hall expected for tomorrow, we expect to give them enough training to meet up to our expectations. However,even before then, the Ministry of finance gives us feedback on releases. We are all still together as our commissioner is the one supervising the two ministries for now. But basically our business is to give conveyance and approval after the Governor has approved that project.
” Sometimes people come and make demands for funds forgetting that we cannot give out such funds without budgetary approvals. We don’t release monies like that. What we do is to authorize and then convey to the officer for release in the finance ministry where clients will go and receive accordingly.” Said the perm secretary.