Dogara further explained that by constitutional design, the president’s role in drafting the budget estimates could not be assailed, but the “power of the purse” was the function of the legislature.
He said, “That includes the fact that expenditure can only be made in consequence of express legislative authorization and the authority to create and collect taxes, borrow or raise money through loans when the need arises.
“Over the years, the main problem with our budget as submitted by the executive is that it does not reflect national values and priorities.
“The budget, more often than not, only reflects the values and priorities of those who help the President in drafting it. The integrity of the project selection process has always been the bane of our national budgets.
“I regret to say that until we eliminate these problems, we will always have non-implementable national budgets which cannot be relied upon by policymakers in establishing spending priorities.
“It is very painful that for some years now, our budget process has been an exercise in either or a combination of audacious optimism and/or hypocrisy involving key actors, putting together a budget that they fully know will at best be implemented up to 45 percent.
“This by all standards is below average. How many of us will be proud of a child who consistently performs below average in his exams? How many of us here are proud of our below average budget performance all these years?
“Our below average budget performance is the main reason why Nigeria has remained a major promise as our national potential cannot be released without effective budget planning and execution.”
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