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The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has written to the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, asking him to release to the Federal Executive Council the 2025-2027 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as well as the budget proposals for the 2025 fiscal year.
Lead Director of the Centre, Eze Onyekpere, in the letter to the minister, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent by email, said that S.11 (2) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) mandated the Federal Government after consultation with states “not later than four months before the commencement of the next financial year, cause to be prepared a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework for the next three financial years”.
He described the non-presentation of the two documents to either the Federal Executive Council or the National Assembly as a gross violation of the constitution.
Onyekpere demanded that those who violated this provision should be reprimanded as well as apologising to Nigerians not to repeat the same.
The letter says, “We further recall the provisions of S.14 of the FRA mandating the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning before the end of the second quarter of each financial year, to present the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework to the Federal Executive Council for consideration and endorsement.
“Thereafter, the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as endorsed by the Federal Executive Council shall take effect upon approval by a resolution of each House of the National Assembly.
“It is also a provision of S.18 of the FRA that the MTEF is the basis for the preparation of the estimates of revenue and expenditure (annual budget) required to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly under section 81 (1) of the Constitution.
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“Also, it is mandatory for the sectoral and compositional distribution of the draft annual budget to be consistent with the medium-term developmental priorities set out in the MTEF. The purport and implication of the foregoing provisions is that the MTEF 2025-2027 should have been endorsed by the Federal Executive Council by the end of June 2024 and should have been presented to the National Assembly in August 2024.
“However, the Minister is yet to prepare and present the MTEF 2025-2027 to the Federal Executive Council or the National Assembly about seven weeks to the end of the year and in the middle of November.
“The MTEF is not ready and the budget estimates are not ready. This is a gross violation of the clear and unambiguous provisions of the FRA. It is gross dereliction of duty on the part of the Honourable Minister. If the National Assembly had lived up to its duty of representing the interest of Nigerians, the executive should have been reminded, sanctioned and called to order.
“This process of ensuring the sanctity of the FRA and that it is obeyed to the letter should have been commenced by NASS immediately upon their return from their midyear legislative vacation. By this dereliction of duty, the Minister has already laid a solid foundation for the late consideration and passage of both the MTEF 2025-2027 and the 2025 federal budget and their subsequent haphazard implementation.
“This dereliction of duty also paves the way for the budgetary corruption involved in rushed approval and appropriation of funds where wholesale corruption will be cemented in votes that are clearly illegal, inappropriate and wasteful. It also facilitates corrupt procurement and its associated scams to beat deadlines arising from late passage to late implementation of budgets.
“In the light of the foregoing, CSJ is demanding the immediate submission of the MTEF 2025-2027 to the National Assembly – if it has been prepared, an explanation to Nigerians about the reasons, if any, informing the dereliction of duty and an apology to Nigerians who bear the brunt of this failure to perform and a formal and substantive guarantee of non-repetition.”
