President of the Senate, Senator David Mark on Monday described Federal Government’s claims on the implementation of the 2012 budget as illusive.
Mark said this while speaking at the 2013 budget defence of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The senate president lambasted the Minister of Agriculture, Akinwunmi Adesina, for awarding constituency projects just a one month to the end of the 2012 fiscal year.
His words: “Statistics given by percentage (on budget implementation) never gives any real figure or perception or what is practically on ground. You have less than 30 days. What can you do? Budget performance is very low. We want to look at the performance based on the real number of people it has affected. At the end of the day, it is not the statistics on paper. If the statistics don’t translate to change in the lives of Nigerians, it has not done what it is supposed to do.”
“I want to know how much fertiliser and seedlings went to the farmers directly through the new method you introduced.”
While responding, Adesani said he had been able to distribute fertiliser to over 1.2million farmers, 90 percent of whom are from the northern part of the country.
He put the 2013 budget estimate of the ministry at N47. 3billion out of which capital expenditure is N40.2bn; personnel costs, N6.7bn and overhead costs, N368.8 million.
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