The BudgIT Foundation has urged the National Assembly to move away from budget insertion and adopt evidence-based scrutiny that links public spending to development plans, previous performance and citizens’ needs.
The call was made by the Country Director of BudgIT, Vahyala Kwaga, who represented the organisation’s Director, Olusegun Onigbinde, at the 2026 Capacity Building Workshop themed, “Leveraging Legislative Oversight and Media Collaboration to Safeguard the National Budget from Unlawful Insertions.”

Kwaga, who spoke on “From Insertion to Interrogation: The National Assembly’s Role in Evaluating the Executive’s Budget Proposal,” said the legislature’s responsibility should go beyond negotiating figures or adding projects to the Appropriation Bill.
He said lawmakers should test whether proposed spending is backed by credible plans and evidence of what government achieved with previous allocations.

According to him, every budget line should be traceable to the National Development Plan, Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, sector strategies and previous budget performance.
He said lawmakers should ask fundamental questions about previous spending, including what was appropriated, what was released, what was delivered and whether the outcome justified further funding.

BudgIT proposed six tests for every budget item: its link to national and sector plans, previous performance, possible duplication, costing, audit findings and evidence of citizens’ needs.
The organisation also called for stronger year-round legislative oversight, with committees tracking project implementation, reviewing quarterly reports and using findings from audits and site visits to inform subsequent budget cycles.

Kwaga further advocated the use of technology and artificial intelligence to help lawmakers and their aides analyse thousands of budget lines, identify duplicate or vague projects, compare costs and link proposed allocations with previous appropriations, releases and payments.
He, however, stressed that AI should only assist the process, with every flagged item subjected to human verification before conclusions are reached.

BudgIT also called for earlier submission of budget proposals, annual sector strategies, stronger audit mechanisms, machine-readable government financial data and greater citizen participation in the budget process.
It proposed physical and virtual public hearings, constituency needs registers and citizen monitoring of projects to ensure that legislative decisions are based on evidence of actual needs.

The organisation argued that the value of legislative oversight should ultimately be measured by credible budgets, completed projects and measurable development outcomes, rather than the volume of projects inserted into annual appropriations.
The workshop emphasised the need for stronger collaboration between legislators, journalists, civil society and citizens to improve transparency and ensure that questionable budget items are subjected to proper scrutiny before public funds are committed.