29th May, 2019
The Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership and Strategy and Development, Dr Otive Igbuzor has advised the Federal government to review its budgetary process to include community participation.
Igbuzor gave the advice on Wednesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja while reacting on the 2019 Appropriation Law.
He said that international best practice showed that every community should have a say in the nation’s budget if it’s to lead to economic growth.
Igbuzor however said that the high cost of governance had impeded economic development in the country.
He said that the budget was not making much impact because most of the money was spent on recurrent expenditures like salaries and overheads.
“ There are statutory allocations to the National Assembly, the judiciary, ecological fund, development of mineral resources that are not monitored.
“In fact, the 2012 audit of the Auditor General of the Federation stated clearly that there are some fraudulent practices going on with these funds.
“In terms of the content of the budget, the budgetary allocation to the social sectors; education, health and infrastructure which will directly impact on citizens is still low,’’ he said.