The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has accused the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) of smuggling N206 billion into the 2023 budget of Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management.
A statement by the ministry said Mrs. Ahmed pointed fingers at the BOF when she appeared before House Committee on Appropriation’s interactive meeting. The minister told the legislators that “there was an error in the budget of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs as the N206 billion captured in the budget proposal of the ministry was wrongly coded by the Budget Office”.
“Mrs. Ahmed said the N206 billion alleged insertion, which had generated serious reaction within the week, was for the national social safety nets project funded by the World Bank and domiciled in the Humanitarian Ministry,” the statement said.
The Finance Minister told the legislators that “the wrong coding resulted in the item being wrongly captured as ‘purchase of security equipment’ but that it had nothing to do with Budget padding, but an oversight”.
She added: “The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management should have called the attention of the Budget Office to the anomaly, like her counterparts in other ministries.”
“Quit if you aren’t ready to work, Reps panel tells Humanitarian Affairs minister”
Also, the House of Representatives has asked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, to quit her job if she is not ready to work.
The lawmakers made the remarks following the minister’s incessant failure to appear before various committees of the House to defend the ministry’s 2023 budget proposal.
Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Muktar Betara, spoke on behalf of the committee during an investigative hearing on alleged budget insertion of N206 billion in the 2023 budget of the ministry yesterday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the N206,242,395,000 is reportedly earmarked for the National Social Safety Nets Project, which is funded by the World Bank and domiciled in the ministry.
The committee chairman had asked why Hajiya Farouq was not present to defend the insertion, saying she should quit, if she was not ready for the job.
“Most times the committee calls the minister, she refuses to come. If she is not ready for the job, she should quit,” Betara said. NAN also reports that Hajiya Farouq, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Nasir Gwarzo, said the minister directed him to represent her.
“The minister said she did not understand the budget code. It was the media that reported the error as padding. We did not go to the media refuting the work the committee or the Ministry of Finance had done.
But we wrote for clarification, which was given. The amount of money in question was a counterpart funding that was given by the World Bank. If it was done without appropriation, Nigerian would not have known what was borrowed,” he said.
In his response, a member of the committee, Igariwey Enwo (PDP Ebonyi), said the budget should not be subjected to controversy.
“We are talking about the money we borrowed. We should also know how we spend the money. Raising unnecessary controversy about the budget will not augur well. There should be inter-agency coordination.”
Benjamin Kalu (APC Abia) said: “My concern is that the image of our country should be protected in respect of the budget. I reached out to the Minister of Finance on the issue but nothing was done. I could not go ahead to give the media the information it needed at that point.”
