The Challenges of Budget Implementation in Nigeria: Evidence from Federal Capital Territory Administration

Abstract

The study examines the Challenges of Budget Implementation in Nigeria with particular reference to Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). The variables studied were budget; preparation, methodology, submission, zero-based-budget, delay of budget implementation and executive capacity. The data was obtained from primary and secondary sources. The methodology employed was descriptive statistics; one sample z statistics. The Result suggests that majority of the staff involved in the budget process are male with university qualification and HND holders and; are FCDA staff who belong to the accounting and budget/planning cadres, all the organizations receive budget call circular before the commencement of annual budget preparation, zero based budget method is used, budget is revised once or twice by the Budget Committee of the Treasury. The result also reveals that the budget use be submitted to the Ministerial Committee for approval before onward transmission to the National Assembly for final approval. All payments of planned expenditure are effected when due process is followed. Furthermore, the inferential statistics result reveals that, delay in the process and inadequate executive capacity have statistically significant relationship with budget implementation. In view of the above, the researcher concludes that, bureaucratic bottleneck impedes budget implementation. Based on the above conclusion, the study recommends that, budget preparations should be done before the coming of the call circular, in order to avoid unnecessary delay in; budget preparation, submission and approval. This can also be addressed through adequate training of staff on; budget methods and techniques, accounting procedure, record keeping, document retrieval system and digitalization of the whole budgeting process, accounting and reporting system in order to have an effective budget implementation.