Page 1 of 30

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at

http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 02 Issue 8

August 2016

Available online:http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 12

Public Expenditure, Management And

Administration In Nigeria Tertiary Institutions:

The Need For A Revisit

BY

Nyikyaa Miriam Nguavese 1

, Iliya Bawa2

and Ahmed Isa Yanga3

Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa – Nigeria

1E-mail: nyikyaamiriam@yahoo.com

2E-mail: iliyabawa84@gmail.com

3E-mail: ahmedyanga2000@gmail.com

Abstract

The Nigeria fiscal system evolved

and operated on principles that

negated the main features of public

expenditure management which

include among others allocation,

efficiency and equity, guided by the

principles of needs, equity, stability

and national interest, the Nigeria

tertiary institution seem to be in

perpetual traumas. Tertiary

education in Nigeria is faced with a

lot of challenges ranging from the

historical factors of the

misappropriation of funds caused by

the high level of corruption and

embezzlement in conjunction with

the lackadaisical attitude of

government officials towards the

growth of the sector. This study call

for a revisit on the management and

administration of public funds

allocated to the tertiary institutions.

The study is a qualitative research

and based on secondary data. The

pieces of information gleaned from

the foregoing sources are weighed in

relation to the topic using both

deductive and inductive reasoning. It

was recommended that there should

be a legal procedures for

administrative and other restrictions

on the expenditure of public

resources that enhance

Page 2 of 30

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at

http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 02 Issue 8

August 2016

Available online:http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 13

transparency, accountability,

fairness and objectivity.

Keywords: Education,

Administration, Funds, Management,

Institution, Tertiary, Public.

I Introduction

All great tertiary institution of learning

are centres of disagreements, of

disputations and continuous polemics.

Sometimes disagreements between

schools of thought could be strident. And

therein lies the excitement because each

side can prove its stance only through

superior evidence or logic. Scholarly

disputations may even be bitter, but there

is a clear line between disagreement and

anarchy. Facts, superior facts, not

violence are the weapons of the scholar.

It has been noted that the higher

education in Nigeria was bedeviled with

academic, social-economic and political

problems. As a result of these teething

problems, the Higher Education

Administration were faced with series of

threats and opportunities in form of

challenges in order to achieve their goals

and objectives. The fact still remains that

the funding and the amount of control

exercised by the government over the

Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria was

colossal and will probably remain like

that for some time.

Adeyemi and Aviomoh (2004) therefore,

observed that the Nigerian fiscal system

evolved and operated on principles that

negated the main features of public

expenditure management, which include

among others allocation, efficiency and

equity guided by the principles of needs,

equity, stability and national interest.

Fadipe (2000) equally argued that, the

budget systems were designed to support

systems of accountability based on

administrative structures: funds are

allocated to ministries who, in turn,

allocated funds to subordinate, institutions

and departments. This provides little

information on the spending, particularly

where allocations are consolidated and

controlled at ministry level, or several

agencies are involved in the delivery of a

particular service. This structure tends to

obscure analysis of the economic impact

of expenditures, particularly as regards

recurrent and capital expenditures and

transfers.

Page 3 of 30

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at

http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 02 Issue 8

August 2016

Available online:http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 14

In its contribution, Cruise (2009) noted that

Nigeria’s PEM is structured after oil

income such that in periods of boom,

expenditure is ratcheted up while periods of

lower oil prices becomes one of crisis.

Other problems of PEM in Nigeria include

inefficiency in resource use, waste and

misplaced priorities in government

expenditure, high fiscal deficits at all tiers

of government, weak institutional structure,

a fiscal federal structure that places little or

no premium on inter-temporal fiscal

solvency, and poor institutional

mechanism for regulating actions of the

different tiers of government and their

agencies. These have led to high debt

burden, huge recurrent expenditure burdens,

inefficient delivery of services and

distortion in the incentive structure for

both the private and public sectors.

Apparent lack of political will and

commitment to abide by stipulated rules and

budget guidelines, inability to develop a

macro-economic framework for budget

formulation, role ambiguities among various

government agencies concerned with

PEM, lack of coordination between the

office of the Accountant General of the

Federation (AGF) and the Central Bank of

Nigeria (CBN), slow budget process

fraught with errors, among other things

(Akinwumiju and Agabi, 2008). Ukeje

(2002) on its part noted that, Nigeria has

pursued a long term expenditure

management framework.

Gowon and Obasanjo regimes pursued

nine years development plan, Babangida

embarked on ten years SAP programme

while Abacha a fifteen years vision 2010

programme. Against this background,

the President Olusegun Obasanjo led

government to embarked on Public

Expenditure Management reforms in 2003.

Ukeje (2002) noted that this new PEM

pursued medium term expenditure

management framework that emphasized

diversification of the economy, private

led economic growth, performance

budgeting, and highlights the asymmetry

of the economic activities and the

contribution to GDP and the closure of

supply and efficient gap in the economy.

Due process came to characterize or to be

the guiding philosophy of the new reforms.

As Okeke (2001) noted, this is a

departure from the past PEM practices