The enigma of Fiscal Responsibility Act over budget implementation in Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria

The enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), which has inherent provisions for consistent updates such as quarterly and annual reporting on budget execution across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria, renewed the hope of achieving budget implementation by, at least, 75% level. However, partial and/or outright non-adherence to FRA provisions appears to undermine the proper management of public expenditures in various MDAs in Nigeria, thus dashing the hope. Using the documentary method of data collection and the qualitative descriptive method of data analysis, this study attempts to bring the literature up to date by investigating how irregularity in the publication of annual and quarterly reports on budget implementation, contrary to the provisions of the FRA, encourages corruption in public expenditures using the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) as an example. The finding shows that MDAs hardly implement the FRA on budget execution reporting and this has resulted in the diversion of appropriated funds to private pockets, thus leading to abysmal budget implementation. The study recommends that punitive measures be extended to culprits to serve as deterrence to future breaches.