Auditor-General says Buhari didn’t use any zero-based budget for N6 trillion proposed

“Budgets of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government this year are all enveloped based and not zero-based as it has been the case over the years,” Auditor-General of the Federation Samuel Ukura told a Senate panel Thursday.

Ukura contradicted President Muhammadu Buhari’s claim—and that of his budget team—that the 2016 budget is zero-based, the reason why discrepancies litter the N6.08-trillion proposal.

Zero-based budgets ensure money is allocated based on needs, unlike the envelope method where a lump-sum is allocated.

The AGF explained that the earlier intention of the Buhari government was to adopt zero based budgeting as a template. But the budget planners were forced by the realities on ground to adopt the usual enveloped based budgeting.

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“It is a system which is good and which would have also helped to set targets, but that wasn’t applied at the end of the day, perhaps, because it was hurriedly being introduced,” Ukura told the Senate public account panelists while defending the N2.9 billion allocated to his office.

The 2016 budget proposal has been generating ripples of controversy since December 22 when Buhari presented to a joint session of the National Assembly.

There have been speculations the proposal was stolen or padded by ministries’ rats and budget mafia among the civil servants that prepared the proposal then.

Other critics believe the details run afoul of Buhari’s much touted austerity and frugality.

While the NASS delays its passage till mid-March, the presidency has ordered a probe into the padding allegation, and some budget officers have been fired.