Mark tasks executive on budget implementation

    Written by Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja

  THE Senate President, David Mark, on Monday, charged the executive arm of government to ensure strict compliance and implementation of budgets as a way of achieving good governance.

  Mark who spoke at the Civil Society Organisations/ Non Governmental Organisations roundtable on monitoring of the 2013 budget held at the National Assembly yesterday stressed the importance of full implementation of the national budget to national development pointing out that it was the thrust of democracy.
  Represented at the occasion by his Special Assistant on NGOs, Nehi Okunmendia, the Senate President said that he has never deviated from his stance on the need for the full implementation of the national budget as passed by the National Assembly.

  The result of the CSOs/NGOS independent monitoring and tracking of budget in their respective zones, he said, is expected to contribute to the on-going debate on what amounts to an acceptable implementation rate of the national budget from an independent and objective point of view.

  He noted that the objective of budget monitoring exercise is to map out a mechanism that would ensure total budget compliance.

  The Interim Administrator National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO) E.B. Jarumi , noted that the implementation of national budget affects everybody when it is poor executed.

  Jarumi, who was the Chairman of the event said that the 2014 budget was christened budget of job creation “but I still have more than 15 jobless persons in my house.’

  He urged the CSOs to expose those responsible for poor budget implementation.

Jarumi added, “There is no gain saying the fact that the government budget apart from being a key policy document is also the vehicle for the mobilization, allocation and management of resources geared towards the achievement of development plans, programmes and projects.

  “However in Nigeria, especially in recent years, the implementation of the capital component of the budget has elicited deep concerns on account of poor implementation leading to abysmal performance and inability to achieve well spelt-out development goals.”

  He said that it was on account of the development that NABRO decided the annual production “Mapping of Capital Projects report since its inception in 2012.

    Culled from http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/business