The Federal Government disbursed N1.23 trillion to 17 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, for capital projects in the third quarter of 2023.

According to the Budget Implementation Report for the third quarter of 2023, released by the Budget Office on Sunday, July 7, this amount was 75.4 percent less than the N5 trillion allocated for capital expenditure in the 2023 budget, resulting in a deficit of N3.8 trillion.

The funds were intended to advance development and infrastructure initiatives as of September 30, 2023.

Capital projects are significant investments in physical infrastructure or assets expected to provide long-term benefits. These projects typically involve the construction, acquisition, or renovation of tangible assets such as buildings, roads, bridges, dams, schools, hospitals, and other facilities.

The report also revealed that the ministries utilized only N962.87 billion out of the N1.23 trillion that was made available.

The report partly read, “The release of funds to MDAs for capital expenditure as at the third quarter of 2023 was done in tranches based on availability of resources and government priorities. Data from the OAGF on 2023 capital performance for MDAs as of 30th September 2023 showed that a total of N1.23tn was released to MDAs and cash-backed for 2023 capital projects and programmes.

“The sum of N351 billion was released as the first Tranche, N331.92 billion was the second Tranche and N208 billion was the third Tranche. A total of N75.35 billion was released as AlEs MDAs Budget and N261 billion as AlEs Service Wide.”

The report added that a breakdown of the 52 MDAs included in the report from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation indicated varying levels of fund utilization.

“42 of the MDAs representing (80.77 percent) had utilized more than the overall average utilization rate of 52.44 percent of the amount cash-backed. 35 out of them had a above 65.0 percent utilization rate while only four (7.72 percent) had a one hundred percent utilization level.

“The utilization report also revealed that 10 (18.18 percent) of the MDAs had below 40 percent utilization rate of their cash-backed funds. Five (9.10 percent) of the MDAS had utilization rates of below 20 percent while three (5.45 percent) were yet to utilize anything from the funds released to them,” it stated.

The Ministries of Defence, Works, and Agriculture received the highest capital allocations of N189.39 billion, N178.62 billion, and N128.24 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Women Affairs received the lowest cash backing of N3.93 billion, N3.73 billion, and N5.37 billion, respectively.

A detailed breakdown showed that the Ministry of Defence had the highest allocation for capital projects with a cash backing of N189.39 billion but utilized only N180.69 billion, leaving a balance of N9.3 billion.

The Ministry of Works and Housing followed, with a total cash-backed allocation of N178.62 billion. However, it utilized only N118.65 billion, leaving a balance of N57.97 billion.

The Ministry of Agriculture received cash backing of N128.24 billion but utilized N109.89 billion, leaving a balance of N18.35 billion.

Other ministries demonstrated similar spending patterns: The Ministry of Water Resources utilized N21.81 billion out of the N28.27 billion disbursed, Ministry of Education spent only N31.35 billion out of its N54.03 billion allocation, Ministry of Health spent N34.82 billion out of its N55.77 billion allocation, Ministry of Aviation utilized N5.94 billion out of a cash backing of N20.44 billion.

Similarly, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology spent N12.76 billion out of the N44.08 billion cash backed for capital projects, Transport spent N43.39 billion out of its N56.55 billion allocation, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management released N37.13 billion for capital projects out of cash backed funding of N53.4 billion, the Office of Secretary General of Federation disbursed 14.04 billion out of its N17.37 billion allocation. Police Affairs Ministry spent N27.42 billion out of the N29.79 billion released,  Labour and Productivity disbursed N6.06 billion out of N8.87 billion and the Ministry of Interior disbursed N15.66 billion out of its allocation of N16.81 billion.

The Budget Office has noted that the majority of projects implemented were constituency projects not within the mandate of the MDAs.

It stated that this practice is concerning because these projects are prioritized over those aligned with the MDAs’ mandates.

The report read in part, “Most MDAs’ capital projects are dominated by constituency projects. This practice is disturbing because although most of the projects have no direct bearing with the mandate of the host agencies, they are prioritized over the projects in line with the mandate of the MDAS.”

The Budget Office further recommended that, given the prevalence of constituency projects that fall outside the MDAs’ mandates, it is crucial to emphasize and prioritize only capital projects that align with the MDAs’ mandates during budget preparation and implementation.