The Federal Government released N963billion capital votes to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the first quarter of 2011.
Outgoing Minister of Finance, Mr Olusegun Aganga, disclosed this at the signing of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill and the 2011 Appropriation Act by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja
According to him, as of March 31, 2011, N963 billion had been released for capital projects, of which N956 billion was cash-backed and N936 billion had been utilised by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) resulting in a utilisation rate of 97.86 per cent.
Disclosing that this was the highest amount ever to be implemented in a 15-month period, the minister said in the previous year, N919 billion was implemented.
“This indicates that we must be careful and realistic in the preparation of the capital budget given the implications for macroeconomic stability. We want a realistic implementable budget, especially as we are also looking at PPP as an option,” he said.
Mr Aganga said the Federal Government’s priority continued to be the completion of ongoing capital projects in addition to enhancing the quality and efficiency of spending.
For the 2011 budget, the minister said government had asked the MDAs to provide deliverables as part of the move to a full Performance Based Budgeting to ensure a shift from simple resource commitments to the MDAs towards actual execution, delivery and performance.
Speaking further, he said the Federal Government would focus on achieving better capital efficiency through monitoring of MDA’s deliverables and quarterly reporting on progress with capital projects.
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Budget 2011: FG releases N963bn capital votes