By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has said that at least 60 percent of the 2019 budget may be rolled over to 2020. Mr Ngige hinted at this at a meeting with management and staff of the Ministry in Abuja.
Speaking on the budget performance, he disclosed that the executive arm of government would always find it difficult to implement the budget if it suspects that it had been tampered with during presentation at the National Assembly.
“The 2019 budget has not been aggressively executed and 60 percent of it will have to be rolled into 2020 budget, we knew this during the presidential retreat that was organised for ministers designate at the presidential villa,” the minister said.
While expressing optimism that the Mr Ahmed Lawan-led Senate will approve next year’s budget by December, if it is submitted to them in September, Mr Ngige noted that as a measure to curb budget padding, all the parastatals under his ministry will have to submit their own budget as well as defend it in the ministry to avoid going behind back to meet National Assembly members.
“We have been told to submit our budget to the National Assembly in September so that we can get it back by December. Senate President Ahmed Lawan is a man of his words that we can work with.
“Our parastatals will submit their own budget in the ministry and come to defend it because if there is budget paddling it is because parastatals invite National Assembly members to come and warehouse padded things into their budget.
“That must be stopped and any parastatals under this ministry that does that will be sanctioned so that we can live within our means,” Mr Ngige said.
He, however, warned the ministry staff to shun corruption, stressing that corruption is given impetus by opacity.
He said: “When everything is open, it is not easy to be corrupt. So, our parastatals in particular, must know what they are doing, the financial regulation is there which instructs them to give financial balances to their main ministry and we must enforce it.”
Furthermore, Mr Ngige said that job creation will take prominent place as he returns to the ministry. According to him, job creation and anti- corruption will be the yardstick with which his tenure will be measured.
He said his return will consolidate on what the ministry had been doing and promised that the ministry would now be proactive in creating employment through cooperative policies that would make all the states in the federation to create jobs in agriculture, mining and industrial sector.
“Employment is in the name of our ministry and people do not know that we do not employ here, we don’t employ but it is on us to make sure that we monitor employment at all government agencies and have our returns that we now compare,” Mr Ngige added.
In May 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari, signed the 2019 budget into law.
Dipo Olowookere