White House, Aso Rock and budget crisis
February 20 2016 By Abiodun Giwa
A budget fraud in the United States? What many people who saw the front page story in the New York Daily News on Thursday thought before reading the story was about a budget fraud.
It turned out that there was not a budget fraud, but a reduction in spending on terror protection in the U.S with lesser money for New York City, and New York City representatives expressing opposition to the decision by the White House to slash the terror protection money for the city.
President Barack Obama has come into the story as the country's leader, who oversees the budget and who must know about everything in the budget before it is made public. He cannot say he is unaware of the changes in the budget concerning protection money to the city. It is not only in the United States that budgeting is an act of drawing up expenditures and the costs as an annual ritual by every government at different levels, as well as organizations and individuals. It is part of a system of ensuring accountability and weeding off unnecessary expenditure that could result in waste or fraud.
When unnecessary expenditure or fraud is detected in a budget, be it in a lesser government level or an organization, the head of the organization or government, who is supposed to approve the budget before it becomes practicable will be responsible. Just like the White House in the U.S decided to slash the money for terror protection to New York City, it will be fraud to find out that someone else has done that without the president's office approval. And if the slashing of the terror fund has been done without the White House reading of the budget and ensuring that all the figures in the budget pass the ethical test before the president's approval and before it goes to the Congress.
The president will be responsible for whatever error the officials in the White House fail to detect before pushing it for the president's approval, if it is later detected that errors in the budget have passed the attention of White House officials and the president has been made to give a nod to a budget that is inconsistent to the needs of the people and the country.
But in a country like Nigeria, where politicians seeks ways to make money at the expense of the public by budgeting inflation, anything can find its way into the budget. When the vigilant media finds out about the evil in the budget as recently reported in the country, the president's office is not to blame, but officials appointed by the former president who all belong to the opposition party. The news first came that an official responsible for the budget had been asked to go and later the news came with the full gist that all heads of government agencies, who were appointees of the former president had been asked to go. No one has asked any question about those officials in Aso Rock who are supposed to have read through the budget, before they present it to the president for his approval.
It is assumed that Aso Rock officials have read the budget before they present it to the President Muhammed Buhari and before president Buhari decidedly embarked on the ceremony of presenting it to the National Assembly, unaware that what he was presenting was a load of fraud. The irony is that Buhari as a leader has decided to fight corruption, be he has been given a load of corruption to present to the National Assembly as budget.
Aside from the axing of the former appointees of the previous president following the news of the budget fraud, no other official of the government in Aso Rock has been affected by Buhari's decision to punish people responsible for his budget hoax. News from the country says it is the way the war against corruption has taken, with just few of the current government officials being questioned, despite the fact that many of them had been part of the former ruling government before they formed the opposition bedrock.
Unlike the U.S and other civilized countries, men and women in Nigeria who helped the president into office can never be seen as corrupt, but those who opposed his emergence are the corrupt ones. Though, the public knows that all their politicians are birds of the same feather.
It turned out that there was not a budget fraud, but a reduction in spending on terror protection in the U.S with lesser money for New York City, and New York City representatives expressing opposition to the decision by the White House to slash the terror protection money for the city.
President Barack Obama has come into the story as the country's leader, who oversees the budget and who must know about everything in the budget before it is made public. He cannot say he is unaware of the changes in the budget concerning protection money to the city. It is not only in the United States that budgeting is an act of drawing up expenditures and the costs as an annual ritual by every government at different levels, as well as organizations and individuals. It is part of a system of ensuring accountability and weeding off unnecessary expenditure that could result in waste or fraud.
When unnecessary expenditure or fraud is detected in a budget, be it in a lesser government level or an organization, the head of the organization or government, who is supposed to approve the budget before it becomes practicable will be responsible. Just like the White House in the U.S decided to slash the money for terror protection to New York City, it will be fraud to find out that someone else has done that without the president's office approval. And if the slashing of the terror fund has been done without the White House reading of the budget and ensuring that all the figures in the budget pass the ethical test before the president's approval and before it goes to the Congress.
The president will be responsible for whatever error the officials in the White House fail to detect before pushing it for the president's approval, if it is later detected that errors in the budget have passed the attention of White House officials and the president has been made to give a nod to a budget that is inconsistent to the needs of the people and the country.
But in a country like Nigeria, where politicians seeks ways to make money at the expense of the public by budgeting inflation, anything can find its way into the budget. When the vigilant media finds out about the evil in the budget as recently reported in the country, the president's office is not to blame, but officials appointed by the former president who all belong to the opposition party. The news first came that an official responsible for the budget had been asked to go and later the news came with the full gist that all heads of government agencies, who were appointees of the former president had been asked to go. No one has asked any question about those officials in Aso Rock who are supposed to have read through the budget, before they present it to the president for his approval.
It is assumed that Aso Rock officials have read the budget before they present it to the President Muhammed Buhari and before president Buhari decidedly embarked on the ceremony of presenting it to the National Assembly, unaware that what he was presenting was a load of fraud. The irony is that Buhari as a leader has decided to fight corruption, be he has been given a load of corruption to present to the National Assembly as budget.
Aside from the axing of the former appointees of the previous president following the news of the budget fraud, no other official of the government in Aso Rock has been affected by Buhari's decision to punish people responsible for his budget hoax. News from the country says it is the way the war against corruption has taken, with just few of the current government officials being questioned, despite the fact that many of them had been part of the former ruling government before they formed the opposition bedrock.
Unlike the U.S and other civilized countries, men and women in Nigeria who helped the president into office can never be seen as corrupt, but those who opposed his emergence are the corrupt ones. Though, the public knows that all their politicians are birds of the same feather.