Sen. Ahmad Lawan (APC-Yobe) says the Nov. 29 National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalled consideration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper(FSP).
Lawan, Majority Leader of the Senate, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Abuja, said though the matter was scheduled on the Order Paper, it was stepped down.
MTEF and FSP is a three-year planning tool that defines government’s economic, social and development objectives and priorities.
It also details the strategies to achieving government’s defined objectives and highlights the key assumptions behind revenue projections.
It also highlights strategic objectives behind the expenditure framework and fiscal targets over the medium term.
It further articulates the nature and fiscal significance of government’s debt and measures to reduce such liabilities.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 makes statutory provisions requiring the Federal Government to prepare the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
It is expected to be considered before presentation of the 2019 Budget by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Lawan noted that the senate planned to take it on another legislative day but that did not happen due to other developments.
“It is unfortunate it has not been considered. It was scheduled, unfortunately we could not take it because the day it was scheduled was the day the PDP held its NEC meeting. We had thought that we will take it the next week but then again something happened,” he said.
The lawmaker expressed optimism that the MTEF and FSP would be considered shortly.
He said, “I want to believe that we will take it between Tuesday and Wednesday.”
On the level of implementation of the 2018 Budget, Lawan said while he could not say categorically the level of implementation, government could not do much for paucity of funds.
He said that much could not be done in the implementation of capital allocation until recent passage of the Euro Bond by the Senate for foreign borrowing.
He said,” I believe that the implementation of the 2018 Budget will pick up very fast now that there is fund. This administration has done a lot in a short while and with so little.”
“Devoting 2.8billion dollars to capital projects is something previous administrations failed to do. My expectation is that now that the funds are available, the implementation will jump to catch up with the time we have spent, ” the majority leader said.
(NAN)
