New Fraud Discovered in 2016 Budget by the National Assembly
Category: Nigerian National News
The Senate and House Joint Committee on Appropriation has detected fresh
errors in the 2016 budget, investigations by The PUNCH have revealed.
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It was gathered that the errors were responsible for the failure of
the committee to present its report to the two chambers of the National
Assembly on Wednesday as it had promised.
Investigations, however, showed that the errors would not affect the
plan of the National Assembly to transmit the budget to President
Muhammadu Buhari before Easter as efforts were being made to correct
them.
It was learnt that one of the anomalies detected was in the Office of
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, where provisions had
been made for procurement and installation of security systems every
year since 2013.
For example, in 2013, the sum of N527,000,000 was budgeted for the
item; in 2014, N1,161,356,582 was allocated to the same item; in 2015,
N316,420,274 was budgeted for it; and N1,710,322,610 is to be spent on
the procurement and installation of security system in the SGF office in
2016.
The committee also detected items without project locations in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing (headquarters).
Such projects include the construction of a block of three classrooms
at the cost of N85,592,483; construction of a maternity centre for
N91,124,858; and the allocation of N172,623,767 for the building of
skill acquisition centres.
The committee pointed out that oversight function would not be possible without project locations.
It was learnt that the committee also discovered anomalies in the
allocation of large amounts of money for the rehabilitation and repair
of office buildings as well as purchase of office items and fittings.
Not less than N21bn was allocated to such repairs and purchase at the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government.
The committee also detected duplication of items. For example, N2.3bn
was earmarked for former heads of state in the service wide vote of the
Ministry of Budget and Planning, while N400,190,000 was allocated to
the affairs of the former heads of state in the SGF office.
Other examples of duplication include allocation of N256,920,000 for
the purchase of equipment, vehicles and furniture for the National
Bureau of Statistics and the N230,705,000 by the NBS for the same
purpose.
It was also learnt that the committee discovered instances where
allocations for the purchase of items were made without stating the
quantities to be bought.
Such include the construction of solar boreholes at the cost of N140m
in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing and in the National Power
Training Institute, N81m was budgeted for operational vehicles.
The committee described some items as curious. These include the
allocation of N340m for wildlife conservation at the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria and N150m for growing girls and women project at
the Federal Road Maintenance Agency.
Another curious budgetary item is the refund of N2,479,581,721 to
states for federal roads, which was placed under the National
Intelligence Agency.
When contacted, the Senate spokesperson, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, said the errors had been corrected at the committee stage.
He said that there were no fresh errors and challenged anyone with contrary information to publish the source.
Abdullahi said, “The errors in the budget were identified at the
various committee levels. The Appropriation committees of both chambers
had jointly scrutinized the document and had come up with an error-free
copy.
“As a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, I can confirm
to you that I am not aware of any fresh error discovered after the joint
committee of the two chambers had worked on the budget.
“I challenge anyone with contrary information to publish it together with the source.”
But opposition party lawmakers told The PUNCH that the report was not submitted because there were still areas to be re-touched.
For example, the Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Leo Ogor, said the report was undergoing “finishing touches.”
Ogor added, “There are areas that require finishing touches. It will cut across several parts of the budget.
“But, I know it is something that will be quickly sorted out and the report will be laid by the grace of God tomorrow (today).”
Punch
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