Nigeria’s Members of Parliament on Thursday uncovered series of extra-budgetary spendings by some federal agencies, in breach of the 2017 Appropriation Act signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
To this end, the lawmakers unanimously resolved to conduct thorough investigation into the financial expenditure of over 1,000 federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) over allegation bothering on extra-budgetary spendings in 2017 financial year.
Chike Okafor, chairman House Committee on Healthcare Services who presided over the 2017 budget implementation of Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies, harped on the need to scrutinize the financial records of all the agencies with the view to address various challenges observed during the year under review.
He also frowned at the indiscriminate release of funds for implementation of capital projects to unviable agencies, such as Medical Rehabilitation Therapists (Registration) Board of Nigeria (MRTB) at the detriment of critical agencies.
Okafor (APC-Imo) who noted that the power of appropriation belongs to the National Assembly, pledged the Committee’s resolve to support all the agencies.
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In his intervention, Ibrahim Babangida, Chairman, House Committee on Finance who observed frowned at the development, argued that there was urgent need to probe the extra-budgetary spendings by all the MDAs.
He specifically frowned at the sum of N234 million released by IPPIS to Medical Rehabilitation Therapy Agency against the sum of N194 million approved by the National Assembly in 2017.
The lawmaker also queried the rationale behind the proposed for N272.4 million for personnel cost in 2018, to offset the N40.5 million outstanding released by IPPIS in the previous year.
Also speaking, Adams Jagaba, chairman, House Committee on Interior frowned at the decision of the most of the agencies to spend all the intrenaly generated revenue without recourse to the National Assembly.
“No single agency has the power to spend its IGR,” adding that appropriating over N50 million to an agency which generate N4.188 million revenue yearly and spent the same amount, was unprofitable.
To this end, he proposed that the Executive should work out modalities for domiciliation of such agencies as units within the core ministries.
In his remarks, Wale Raji (APC-Lagos) who noted that National Health Care Development Agency (NHCDA) has not provided any intervention in Epe federal constituency since 2015, emphasized the need to restructure the proposed budget for effective coverage.
The lawmakers also queried the increase in the personnel cost of Institute of Chattered Chemists of Nigeria, from N93 million in 2017 to N97.505 million for yearly staff promotion.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
