‘No budget
will be enough to meet military demands, but for now, I think the sector takes
almost a trillion of the budget’
–Okonjo-Iweala
‘It is not
just about non-release of appropriated funds. Even money approved by the
President was not released’
–Military
source
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and service chiefs are
at loggerheads over disbursement of allocations to the military.
While the finance minister said that the Federal Government released
allocations to the military promptly because its welfare was one of
government’s priorities, the service chiefs said that the delay in releasing
its allocations had hampered its fight against terrorism.
Investigations revealed that the service chiefs, who met with the
minister in Abuja during the week, complained about the delay in releasing the
funds allocated for military operations.
It was learnt that the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh;
Chief of Army Staff, General Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear
Admiral Usman Jibrin, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu,
confronted the minister about the paucity of funds to contain the Boko Haram
insurgents, who kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls on April 14, 2014 in Chibok,
Borno State.
But during a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Okonjo-Iweala said the
Federal Government had released a total amount of N130.7bn to the Ministry of
Defence for military operations between January and April this year.
The minister said the welfare of the military was one of the priorities
of the Federal Government owing to its campaign against terrorism in the
country.
Giving a breakdown of the amount released so far to the military,
Okonjo-Iweala said N85.9bn was released for personnel cost while the balance
was for overheads and capital expenditure.
According to her, the military currently has a provision of about N1trn
in the 2014 budget, adding that based on its demands, no amount of budgetary
provision could take care of its operations.
The minister said, “Defence spending is top in everything, you know that
military establishment needs new things to assist in its work and ours will not
be different.
“To be specific, the military has about N968.12bn and we have disbursed
N130.7bn between January and April 2014.”
Okonjo-Iweala debunked claims in some quarters that the ministry of
finance was responsible for delays in the payment of salaries of men of the
armed forces, adding that the military handled the payment of salaries of its
personnel, as they had not been captured under the Integrated Personnel and
Payroll Information System.
IPPIS is a new payment platform of the Federal Government which allows
salaries to be released directly into account of employees instead of going
through the old system that is fraught with bureaucracies.
The service chiefs, it was learnt,
said that the delay by the ministry of finance in releasing funds for the
military had hindered the service from procuring quality equipment to tackle
terrorism.
It was gathered that the matter came to a head early this week when the
service chiefs confronted the finance minister.
It was learnt that although it was true that some of the military
equipment procured in 2012 were not working as reported by the media, the
military was still bogged down by the delay by the ministry of finance in
releasing funds.
Investigations showed that there were instances where “money would be
released on paper,” but the military would be told that there was no cash
back-up.
A senior government official, who confided in one of our correspondents,
said that the problems ranged from inadequate budgetary provision for the military
to delay in releasing appropriated funds.
He said that there were instances when some senior civil servants
insisted on getting a certain percentage of approved funds before they could be
released.
Nigeria’s defence budget (N256.02bn) was eighth in Africa in 2012.
In 2012, Algeria, which had the largest defence budget in Africa, voted
N1.48tn for defence. It was followed by South Africa with N736bn. Egypt’s
defence budget of N707.2bn ranked third in Africa.
Angola budgeted N663.36bn in 2012 for defence. It ranked fourth in
Africa, while Morocco with a defence budget of N544bn ranked fifth.
Libya budgeted N477.92bn for defence in the same year. It ranked sixth,
while Sudan’s N394.56bn ranked seventh.
Unlike Nigeria, Algeria had succeeded, to a very large extent, in
containing the terrorism threat by an Al-Qaeda linked group, which is said to
be supporting Boko Haram.
Algeria, apparently because of its strong army, turned down the United
States and French help to assist in freeing 41 hostages held by an Al-Qaeda
group at a gas plant late 2012.
The Associated Press had
reported that some of the hostages were killed in an attempt by Algerian
Commands to free the hostages.
In 2013, N281.51bn was allocated to the three security agencies (Army,
Air Force and Navy) in Nigeria.
The Army got N130.01bn while N73.34bn and N78.15bn were earmarked for
the Navy and Air Force respectively.
But of the N130.01bn budgeted for the Army, N1.85bn was allocated for
purchase of defence equipment.
The Navy and Air Force had budgets of N409.4m and N1.51bn respectively
for the same purpose.
Investigations revealed that the amount budgeted for military hardware
was grossly inadequate for a country fighting terrorism.
It was gathered that there were no provisions for the purchase of mine
resistant tanks in 2013 and 2014 budgets.
Such tanks are needed to fight the insurgents because of reports that they
(Boko Haram members) had planted landmines round their camps.
Nigeria currently has no mine resistant tanks.
It was reported few weeks ago reported that many soldiers
were injured during a recent operation because of the landmines planted by Boko
Haram at their camps.
Although a military source put the price of a standard mine resistant
tank at N1bn, it was learnt that the United States bought 15 mine resistant
tanks known as Buffalo in 2004 for $10m.
It was learnt that the problem was not limited to the delay in releasing
budgeted funds.
It was gathered that there had been situations where civil servants
deliberately refused to release special funds approved by President Goodluck
Jonathan.
The top government official, who spoke said, “The civil servants would frustrate all
efforts unless they get a certain percentage from the money.
“The Army has not cried out because it is a disciplined institution. It
is an act of indiscipline and unprofessional conduct for the Army to complain in
public.
“But do you know that because of this frustration, early in the week,
all the service chiefs went to the minister of finance to protest to her,” the
source said.
The Chief of Accounts and Budget (Army), Maj.-Gen. Abdullahi Muraina, on
Wednesday in Jaji, Kaduna State, said without adequate funding, the Army would
not be able to end the Boko Haram insurgency.
Muraina said, “Currently, budgetary allocation for the military is
inadequate to meet the contemporary security challenges and also cater for the
welfare of the Nigerian Army.”
He also noted that apart from inadequate funding, the Army was enmeshed
in bureaucratic bottlenecks for funding approvals.
Muraina, however, urged the Federal Government to evolve other means of
funding and supporting military operations aside the usual budgetary
allocations.
When contacted for comments on the allegation against the Finance
ministry on Thursday, the Special Adviser on Communications to the Minister,
Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, said one of our correspondents should give him till Friday
to comprehensively react.
But Nwabuikwu had yet to respond as of 7pm on Friday despite a reminder
sent to him on Friday.
Also when contacted, an official of the Association of Senior Civil
Servants of Nigeria, who craved anonymity said that the association would react
when the full details of the allegation emerge.
Tags
Politics
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE
ReplyDeleteNews Release. May 24, 2014
“SERVICE CHIEFS BOMB OKONJO-IWEALA”: PUNCH LIES AGAIN
In its front page story, today May 24, 2014, ”Service Chiefs ‘Bomb’ Okonjo-Iweala”, PUNCH, in its usual tradition of lies against the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, claimed that military Service Chiefs confronted her over delays in releasing the security budget.
The story, like most of the “facts” cited in the article, is a complete fabrication. There was no such meeting and we challenge PUNCH to produce evidence of such a “confrontation”.
The Federal Ministry of Finance is NOT withholding any allocations due to the military. We also challenge PUNCH to reveal the “military sources” that gave it the information.
The headline obviously is meant to knock the heads of the military establishment and that of the Federal Ministry of Finance together in order to sow confusion within the government at a time that the country needs to unite to fight a common threat.
It is instructive that no other newspaper went to town with this lie or the negative slant in PUNCH’s tasteless report.
As accurately reported by other newspapers, over N130 billion, including N85 billion in salaries, was released to the military between January and April 2014 because security is a top priority of the Jonathan administration for obvious reasons. Total defence budget is N968.127 billion which is about 20% of the Federal Budget.
We enjoin PUNCH to practice truth and integrity in its reporting. It is unseemly for a national newspaper to fabricate lies and exaggerate issues. PUNCH, Nigerians are watching you and your scurrilous sponsors.
Paul C Nwabuikwu
Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance