Okonjo-Iweala explains delay in 2012 Budget

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday, explained the delay in forwarding the 2012 budget to the National Assembly, saying the executive was consulting with the legislators and did not want to rush the budget.
Speaking at the inauguration of a Ports Reform Monitoring Committee, in Abuja, she said: “We have to do a lot of consultation with the National Assembly. We have to give room for questions. We don’t want to rush the budget.”
On when Nigerians should expect the budget to be submitted to the legislature, she said: “It is a collaborated process with the National Assembly. That is why I don’t want to give any specific date.”

The minister assured, however, that the issue of oil revenue benchmark (which was reduced from $75 per barrel to $70 per) had been concluded and, therefore, won’t require a re-visit.
She assured that the executive was working hard to come up with an Appropriation Bill that could be easily passed as the main issues would have been collectively ironed out with the law makers before its submission.
The ports reform monitoring committee which has the Special Adviser to the President, Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye as Chairman has been mandated to disband the Nigerian Customs Task Force, with immediate effect.
Similarly, the Monye committee is to reduce the number of agencies working at the ports from the current 14 to five, within two weeks.
Okonjo-Iweala noted that operations of the nation’s ports over the years had been “associated with inefficiency and corruption, due largely to poor infrastructure, poor work ethics by all agencies at the ports, as well as multiplicity of agencies at the ports.”
According to her, “these agencies, through their daily activities have made business at the ports very unfriendly as they cause delay in clearing of goods which ultimately add to the cost of importation”.
With the work of the committee which swings into action immediately, the three most important agencies at the ports, Customs, shipping lines and terminal operators, would hence be arranged to work on shift bases for 24 hours daily.
In the immediate, the committee was also mandated to ensure that, terminal operators must be given a one-day deadline to position cargo for clearance or else forego demurrage charges.
Source