CBN must submit budget to N’Assembly, Senate insists

National Assembly building, Abuja

The Senate on Wednesday insisted on scrutinising the Central Bank of Nigeria’s budget as a bill to amend the CBN Act 2007 scaled second reading in the upper arm of the National Assembly.

The Senate had questioned the decision to exclude the CBN from the 2012 budget consideration, saying it was an affront to the legislature.

Presenting the lead debate for the document on Wednesday, Senator Ita Enang, said the bill sought to amend the CBN Act, No 63, 2007 to cause the bank to submit its budget to the National Assembly for approval every financial year as expected by law.

Section 6(3)(a) of the Act states that, “The board shall be responsible for the consideration and approval of the annual budget of the bank.”

According to Enang, the Fiscal Responsibility Act which came later in 2007, provided that all Federal Government agencies, including the CBN, should submit their budgets to be included in the Appropriation bill to be submitted to the National Assembly.

Enang complained that the CBN had relied on the provision of Section 6(3)(a) of its Act to refuse to submit its budget to the National Assembly.

The senator said, “The purpose of this bill is to delete the provision of Section 6(3)(a) of the CBN Act and also to ensure that the legislature which budgets for the nation is abreast of the volume of money available to, and released for economic activities by all persons, institutions and agencies.

This is so because it is not only the funds appropriated by the National Assembly that determines inflation or otherwise in the country but monies released by the CBN and other agencies such as listed in the Fiscal Responsibility Act and this is the essence of the Act.”

He said the document submitted by the CBN through the Budget Office was just a medium term budget forecast of the bank for 2012-2015 and not a budget as envisaged by law.

While ruling on the bills second reading, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who led the proceedings, said the amendment had become necessary because of the abuse of the provisions of the CBN Act.

Also commenting on the bill, the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, said the amendment had been canvassed since 2007, arguing that the clause in section 6(3)(a) of the CBN Act was transitional and should not be an excuse for evading the National Assembly.

Senator James Manager, spoke in the same vein, saying the CBN was running on the path of lawlessness.

Senator Mohammed Makarfi, in his debate, noted that there was no transparency in the financial activities of the CBN.

According to him, the National Assembly did not approve the huge sums of financial bailout doled out to the banks during the financial crisis, even though the US Congress and the UK Parliament approved the various bailouts to their banks.