The Minister of finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has said establishment of public investment unit will strengthen appraisal, selection and implementation of infrastructure projects and as well as coordination of Government’s investment.
She revealed, these units are usually located in a country’s Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Planning or Economic Development and they serve the purpose to strengthen implementation of infrastructure projects.
The minister spoke at a two-day retreat by Budget Office of the Federation (BOF)/National Assembly Appropriation Committee on the Budget Process with focus on Strengthening Public Investment Management (PIM).
“This is even very compelling given that government has had to increase its borrowing to fund these public investments in infrastructure owing to revenue challenges.
The minister explained further that engaging in huge public investment in infrastructure required a management system and structure that will ensure that government gets value for money spent.
According to her, in a developing economy such as ours, the provision of infrastructure is usually a cardinal objective. Stating that, it is mainly due to the multiplier effect of provision of roads, rails, schools, hospitals, etc. on the growth and development of the economy.
She however said the task of strengthening public investment will come easy with commitment, loyalty and collaborations with the relevant stakeholders.
On conceptual context to public investment management and the reason that the government has had to increase its borrowing, Ahmed noted that President Muhammadu Buhari, recognising the importance of infrastructure from his first day in office, prioritised infrastructure provision and upgrade by ensuring that resources are adequately mobilised for infrastructure provision. harped
She harped on mutual relationship between the legislature and the executive in the course of ensuring adequate PIM system,.
“For us to have a strong public investment management system that will help us reduce our infrastructure deficit, deepen our PFM reforms and assist in achieving the goals of our medium to long-term development plans, the executive and the legislature must perform their separate roles effectively while also collaborating to ensure overall success.”
“The role of both the executive and legislative cannot be over emphasised. As we all know; the budget is the main fiscal policy instrument through which public investment on infrastructure is carried out by the government. Besides, ensuring adequate provisions of resources for public investment in infrastructure in key sectors of the economy is one of the key points of our medium-term expenditure framework which forms the basis for preparing the annual budget in line with provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
“Since the coming on board of this administration, the BOF has taken several steps aimed at ensuring allocative efficiency of resources as well as transparency in budget implementation and reporting. For example, government’s commitment to achieving transparency in public expenditure is reflected in the progress that we have made since the country signed up to the open government partnership (OGP) in May 2016 as the 70th member country.
The Minister also noted that the oversight role of the legislative arm of government is particularly important for strengthening the public investment management system.
“Irrespective of the budgetary allocations, the lack of quality spending will erode the objectives of such high allocations. As such, the legislature, using its instrumentality of the oversight function, can help improve the quality of government’s spending on infrastructure. This usually complements the monitoring efforts of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning,” she noted further.
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