Pres. Buhari Sacks Director of Budget Office Over "Messy" Budget

The embarrassing errors in the 2016 Budget have claimed its first casualty as President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday sacked the Director-General (Budget Office), Mr. Yahaya Gusau.

The President immediately approved the appointment of Mr. Tijjani Abdullahi to replace Gusau, who got the appointment just few months ago, August last year.

It is believed that Gasau was fired because of the various discrepancies that had been identified in the 2016 budget proposals currently before the National Assembly, causing embarrassment for Buhari.

A top government source, who confided in PUNCH, said although Gusasu could not be blamed for the errors and padding of the budget, the buck stopped at his table as the director-general.

The source stated, “His removal has to do with errors and discrepancies in the budget. I can assure you that more heads will roll.”

The Presidency sources had alleged that a budget mafia planned to scuttle innovations introduced by the current administration into the budget by inflating figures.

The mafia was alleged to have proposed a budget of N9.7tn for capital and overhead spending, excluding personnel cost, as against the Presidency’s initial estimate of about N8tn.

The mafia was said to have proposed N3tn as overheads alone out of the N9.7tn, a figure the Presidency later slashed to N163bn.

A source in the Presidency who claimed that the mafia was responsible for the controversial provisions in the eventual N6.07tn budget sent to the National Assembly by the Presidency, added that “these bureaucrats also proposed to spend N2.1tn on personnel for the 2016 estimate compared to about N1.8tn."

Sources say President Buhari has vowed not to spare anyone found wanting in the illegal acts