SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, (THEWILL) – Budget and National Planning Minister, Udoma Udo Udoma, has declared that contrary to a claim by Amnesty International (AI) that the Presidency has widened its security votes’ net, there is no line item classified as Security Vote in the State House budget in the N9.1 trillion 2018 Appropriation Act.
Addressing reporters during the breakdown of the 2018 Budget after President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Appropriation Bill into law, Udoma denied claims that the Presidency was siphoning money out of the system using security votes.
“Owing to the growing number of internal security issues, a provision of N75 billion was made for these exercises in the Service-wide votes, not State House vote, in 2018,” Udoma said.
The minister denied a report by Amnesty International (AI) titled “Camouflaged cash: How ‘Security Votes’ fuel corruption in Nigeria”, which indicated, in part, that the Presidency is not only appropriating but “has increased the number of security votes tucked into the Federal Budget in the last two years.”
In a response to reporters’ questions during the briefing in Abuja, the minister said: “There is no line item as Security vote in the State House Budget.”
According to him, “provisions for security-related matters are contained in the detailed Budgets of the Ministry of Defence, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Department of State Security (DSS) etc.
“There are also provisions for military interventions in the Northeast (insurgency) – Operation Lafiya Dole, as well as other specific operations of the Armed forces such as Operation Python Dance, Operation Crocodile Smile and very recently and Operation Cat Race, among others”, Udoma said.
Commenting on other aspects of the budget, Udoma stated that the government was “in a hurry to implement the N9.1 trillion 2018 Budget”.
He also maintained that the “President Muhammadu Buhari administration would work hard to realise the N7.165 trillion revenue projection”.
The minister revealed that the N1.5 trillion deficit contained in the budget “would be financed through borrowing from both domestic and international capital markets”.
“The Federal Government”, he said, “has set up a commitee on the divestment of its assets in the oil industry as a measure of increasing the administration’s revenue profile.
“The revenue boosting measures to be employed by the governemnt in the 2018 fiscal year from the oil sector include: New funding mechanism for JV operations, allowing for Cost Recovery in lieu of previous cash call arrangement; additional oil-related revenue, including royalty recovery, new/marginal field licences, early licensing renewals; and review of the fiscal regime for Oil Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs).
“Besides, government plans to restructure its equity in JV oil assets, with proceeds to be reinvested in other assets, to improve efficiencies in the operations of the JVs and position them for better revenue performance in the future.
“Other revenue sources being pursued by the government are planned increases in excise duty rates on alcohol and tobacco; tax administration improvement initiatives to positively affect collection efficiencies across various tax categories, e.g., Tax amnesty programme.”
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