The Senate has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to sanction invited heads of government Ministries, Department and Agency (MDAs), who failed to appear for deliberations on 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
The President of Senate, Sen.Godswill Akpabio said this when he declared opened the 2024-2026 MTEF/FSP interactive session in Abuja on Thursday.
The session was organised by Senate Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation, National Planning and Local and Foreign Debt.
Akpabio said any invited serious minded head of any MDA interested in success of President Bola Tinubu ought to be present at the interaction.
” If you do not plan on how to succeed, then you have planned to fail, I therefore remind our committee that any serious appointee or any head of any agency that is interested in the success of President Bola Tinubu’s administration ought to be here.
“The Chairman of the lead committee ( Finance), should give me the list of all the Heads of Agencies that you invited who have failed to show up in this session, this is the beginning of their failure in their various offices.
“Any head of agency that sends representation here is not a serious person and therefore, the President must take a second look at such a person’ s appointment.
” It is not a threat but the truth. I shelved even my appointment to appear in Owerri today for the final rally of my party and all other schedules that I have to make sure that I appear so that we can strategise on how we can succeed,” he said.
Akpabio said the interactive session was a landmark, as it was the first in the administration of Tinubu.
He said the timing and urgency of the MTEF and FSP proceedings was in pursuant of the goal of keeping to the re-established January- December budget cycle.
He said the 2024-2026 MTEF/FSP was being considered at a time that events at the global scene and locally, were putting massive negative financial and socio- economic pressure on Nigeria from most development indices.
“While we acknowledge that majority of our people are going through very difficult times in their daily lives at present, we are very hopeful that in the medium term and in the long run, Nigerian economy is bound to rebound for reliefs to majority of our people,” he said.
He called for a frank and honest discussions of all the parameters and indices contained in the 2024-2026 MTEF/FSP.
” We must not shy away from confronting the economic challenges facing the nation and the 2024- 2026 MTEF/FSP should be a platform to guide our subsequent actions.
“He said given the progress made in finance with reforms of the nation’s financial system through passage of four Finance Acts (2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022), Nigeria must continue to bring its financial legislation up to speed for increased revenue,” he said.
He said Nigeria must continue to remove ambiguities and redress socio- economic imbalances to favour the downtrodden.
“There is no doubt that the passage of the various Finance Acts are yielding results for government revenues and providing succor for the low-income earners and small and medium scale sectors of the economy among other fiscal and regulatory benefits.
“We are hopeful that the reforms and future enactments will continue to bring our financial legislations up to date.
“In view of our current realities, borrowing cannot be totally avoided.
“But it is apparent that the borrowing trends cannot be allowed to continue unchecked and conscious efforts must be made to reduce budget deficits,” Akpabio said.
He said to reduce budget deficits required the nation to look inward toward increased revenue generation, blocking of leakages and restraints on what are generally frivolous expenditures by MDAs particularly the Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs).
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance,Sen.Sani Musa said MIEF/FSP document represents a roadmap, that charts the economic and financial course of the nation for the upcoming years 2024-2026.
He said it was the duty of the senate and stakeholders not only to scrutinize but to ensure that the MTEF, FSP 2024-2026 aligns with the best interest of Nigerians, whom they represent.
“Our role as legislators in shaping the MTEF/FSP is not only a constitutional obligation but a moral imperative to our constituents who look to us for guidance and leadership in safeguarding their economic interests.
“We must engage in thorough and unbiased deliberations, focusing on the welfare of the Nigerian people. “It is only through collaboration and consensus-building that we can develop fiscal policies that are robust, equitable, and conducive to sustainable economic growth,the challenges ahead are formidable, but our resolve is stronger,” he said.
He urged the stakeholders to lend their expertise, insight, and untiring commitment towards thorough review and subsequent implementation.
Sani assured that the finance committee would continue with its investigation targeted at blocking revenue leakages, curtailing frivolous expenditures by MDAs and boosting revenues of the government in the face of dwindling revenues from traditional revenue source of crude oil.(NAN)
