BUREAUCRACY AND BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION IN THE POWER SECTOR IN NIGERIA, 1999-2012 (1)

Abstract

Bureaucracy and the trajectory of budgetary and extra-budgetary expenditures in the power sector in Nigeria have been replete with paradox, with its cataclysmic effect on the supply and access to electric power in the country. In fact, from 1999 to 2012, a whooping sum of N2.8 trillion was expended in the power sector with little or no tangible results. In the light of this, the paper examined bureaucracy and budget implementation in the power sector in Nigeria. In doing this, the study relied substantially on documentary method of data collection, content analysis and core assumptions of the Marxist theory of the post-colonial state. In appreciation of the potency and utilitarian value of ideal bureaucracy as a veritable and efficient tool for
budget implementation in the developed economies, the paper problematized bureaucratic bottlenecks as found in the post-colonial state in Nigeria and the manner under which they were ostensibly appropriated by the ruling class in the release of capital funds to the power sector as raison d’être for the apparent malfeasance that dogged capital spending and the building, repair and maintenance of electric power transmission infrastructures in the country. Against the guise by the decisive and hegemonic political gladiators in championing transparency and accountability in the release and utilization of capital funds in the power sector, the bureaucratic bottlenecks rather served as channels through which primitive capital accumulation was accomplished. As part of the ongoing reforms in the power sector, we recommended, among others, a bureaucratic reform aimed at diminishing the entrenched procedures in the release of the appropriated capital funds to the sector.