BY MARY KUYE
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr Femi Falana has accused the Federal Government that it was not doing enough to tame the trend of budget padding in the country
He blasted the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation which he said has been reduced to a status of a non-governmental organization in the past few years.
According to him, the scourge of budget padding is yet to abate because the government has not demonstrated sufficient eagerness to tame the trend.
Falana stated this while delivering the keynote address at the 18th Anti-Corruption Situation Room, ACSR, organized by the HEDA Resource Centre in partnership with the McArthur Foundation.
Mr Falana flayed anti-graft agencies in the land for what he called the selective prosecution of corrupt cases; a development he stressed, makes winning the fight against corruption difficult.
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While speaking on the theme, “Renewing efforts of state and non-state actors in the fight against corruption in Nigeria,” Falana chided President Muhammadu Buhari and top government functionaries for failing to make their asset declaration forms public’
He said in the eyes of the law, there is no such thing as a secret asset declaration.
The Senior Advocate who decried the failure of the Federal Government to learn from history said, beyond the public presentation of the appropriation bill by the President lies some budgets that are shielded from the public, “to the shame of our nation.
His words: “The constitution mandates the Auditor General of the Federation Office to submit yearly audited financial reports of government agencies to the National Assembly.
”Since 1999, reports by the office have not been debated. So, that office is now more or less operating like an NGO. Government agencies are yet to get tired of budget padding.
”President Muhammadu Buhari presented an N10. 59 trillion 2020 budget but do you know the budget of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN for the year?
It is N1. 3 trillion, about ten per cent of the budget of the country that was added. The National Assembly keep encouraging these agencies to present their budgets and most often, the media is chased away.
This is the trend with CBN, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.”
