Fueling Corruption through Budgetary Allocation

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VII, July 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Fueling Corruption through Budgetary Allocation

Dr. Egiyi, Modesta Amaka, Prof. Eugene O. Nwadialor
Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract:- Before the discovery of crude oil, agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, competing opinions concerning to derivation principle was present but negligible in the revenue allocation. However, the discovery of oil and the emergency of the oil boom in the 1970s made Nigeria solely dependent on the oil sector as a source of export earnings and neglected the other sectors housing over 70 per cent of the productive population of the nation, thus the populace often monitored how the national cake is derived and allocated among federating entities. This increased interest in budgetary allocation thus makes it an increasingly scarce commodity. Different sectors, ministry and arms of government compete for more allocations. In an ideal system, the scarce nature of the allocation breeds health completion and positive economic growth but in Nigeria, it is rather used as means for government workers to amass wealth and perform other unlawful acts.

Keywords: Budgetary Allocation; Federal Budget; Nigerian Economy

I. INTRODUCTION

One of the dominant economic concerns of the average citizen in the current decade is the tenacity and size of the government budget and budgetary allocation (Momodu &Monogbe, 2017). This is so because efficient budgetary allocation fosters positive development in our communities, eradicate any inequality in the economy (Saifullahi& Hassan, 2014). Before the discovery of crude oil, agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, competing opinions concerning to derivation principle was present but negligible in the revenue allocation. However, the discovery of oil and the emergency of the oil boom in the 1970s made Nigeria solely dependent on the oil sector as a source of export earnings and neglected the other sectors housing over 70 per cent of the productive population of the nation (Saifullahi& Abubakar, 2013), thus the populace often monitored how the national cake is derived and allocated among federating entities. The country’s revenue-sharing debates revolve around three issues.

Firstly, what the relative proportions of federally generated revenues in the federation account should be assigned to the central government, the states government, the local government and other ‘Special Funds’ otherwise vertical revenue sharing, secondly, the appropriate formulae for distributing of centrally generated revenues among the regions otherwise horizontal revenue sharing and lastly, the percentage of federally generated oil revenue that should be returned to the oil-bearing regions on the account of the principle of derivation and compensation for the ecological effects of oil production and mining (Ogbole& Robert, 2012).

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