The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on Rivers State has queried the allocation of N24 billion in the state’s proposed 2025 budget for the installation of CCTV cameras at the government house.
The committee issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Vice Admiral Ibok-Eke Ibas (Rtd), Sole Administration of the state, to submit a detailed breakdown of major components of the N1.48 trillion appropriation bill.
Julius Ihonvbere, chairman of the committee, issued the ultimatum during a budget defence session held in Abuja on Monday, stating that the committee had gone through the budget as presented by the sole administrator and had raised several issues.
He also queried the allocation of N30 billion for the purchase of gun boats and N23 billion earmarked for contingency reserves, requesting for justification of the sum.
Read also: Senate approves N1.48trn 2025 Rivers budget
He asked the administrator should submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which a legal document that should precede budget presentation.
The chairman said that the committee also observed and questioned the allocation of state funds to existing federal project without agreement with the Federal Government refunds among others.
“We need additional details for those allocations, we request details of state Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the last three months to enable us know your financial flows so that we can weigh it against the deficit in the budget in terms of financing it and carrying out some of the projects.
“We also need details of transfers to local governments, essentially how local government funds that come into the state are being managed at the moment”, he said
“Those documents we have requested for must reach us within 48 hours; be rest assured that we are all on the same side in terms of getting rivers working again.
“We want to ensure that we will promote a lot of accountability and ensure that the interest of the people themselves, no matter how remote they are from the state capital, are protected,” Ihonvbere added.
Earlier, Ibas who was represented by Andrew Nweke, senior special assistant on strategy and policy, explained that the administration inherited many of the items in the budget. For the N24 billion CCTV allocation, Nweke said that office of the Governor is that of honour, saying that there was need to ensure modern technology security surveillance among others.
According him, the budget is a reflection of the interest of Rivers people as is was designed in line with needs assessment carried out by implementation agencies.
Nweke said that Rivers had a lot of peculiarities saying that the N30 billion earmarked for gun boats was to support security agencies in their fight against insecurity on the waterways.
He also said that Rivers is often hit by floods, insecurity and other unforeseen natural circumstances saying that the N23 billion contingency fund was to address such.
He assured that the additional documents required by the committee will made available to the committee to enable easy legislative process.
