Alleged N20.5bn budget padding: Conclude budget defense today — Lawan tells Appropriation Committee
..As NDLEA denies alleged budget padding
…Says N4.5bn meant for its barracks, not Police
…Senate unravels controversy over N16bn NEWMAP loan
By Moses Adeniyi
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, yesterday directed the Committee on Appropriations Wednesday deadline (today, 24th Nov, 2021) to conclude budget defense by subcommittees of the Upper Chamber. This follows budget defence delay resulting from controversy over alleged N4.5billion budget padding by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and other parastatals.
According to a statement by his Special Assistant (Press) Ezrel Tabiowo, Lawan explained that the ultimatum became necessary in keeping with the December 14 timetable for the passage of the 2022 budget by the National Assembly.
He added that working to the contrary may mar the timely passage of the budget as planned.
The Senate President, nevertheless, assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would work assiduously in ensuring that it resolves any likely hitch that may interfere with quick passage of the budget next month.
He commended ministries, departments and agencies of government for appearing before the committees of the chamber to defend their respective budget estimates.
“According to our timetable for the budget defense and subsequent processing by our committees or subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee, tomorrow (Wednesday) will be the last day for the budget defense.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be the last day for the budget defense by subcommittees for appropriation before the committee on appropriations.
“It is gladdening that all our committees have finished their budget defense with ministries, departments and agencies as programmed by this Senate. But we have a little bit of a hitch, we are behind schedule with some of our committees.
“So, I’m sure that those committees that should have appeared before the committee on appropriation, but could not might have had some challenges with getting some details from the MDAs.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday), no matter what, we have to conclude with the budget defense by the subcommittees before the committee on appropriations, and it is very important,” the statement quoted Lawan.
Further explaining why work on the budget must be concluded in good time, Lawan said, “In fact, it is very, very essential that we keep to our timetable, otherwise, we may run into a very serious problem with our time for the budget to be considered and passed by the 14th of December.
“I’m sure that our committees will be able to appear before the committee on appropriations by tomorrow.
“[And] I will also add that the committee on appropriations should make itself available to our subcommittees for appropriation.
“We have up to the weekend to conclude on the work of defense by the subcommittees before the appropriations committee, so that the appropriations committee is able to also work to compile the document for us to work with, when we come to the next segment for the budget processing – that is the laying, consideration and passage of the budget proposal by the grace of God.”
Meanwhile, against the rounds of perceived budget padding which surfaced on Tuesday when the Senate unravelled a controversial N4.5 billion allotted for the construction of ‘Police barracks’ in the 2022 budget for the NDLEA the Agency has said the identified provision was for the NDLEA and not the Police as documented.
Responding to Nigerian NewsDirect inquiry over the alleged padding, the NDLEA mentioned that the controversy was a misrepresention of fact occasioned by the version of the fiscal document presented to the Senate.
NDLEA’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in his reaction to the development while fielding questions from our correspondent said, “The barrack is for NDLEA not Police; it was a typographical error,” mentioning that the original version of the document presented to the House of Representatives had the NDLEA written for the affected allotment.
On the issue of what steps the Agency would take following the rejection of the document when presented to the Senate Committee on Appropriation, he said the subject was under control as the Agency had communicated with the Committee on the misrepresentation.
“It’s something the leadership has spoken with the committee about,” he said.
The identification of the sum believed to be anomalous and irreconcilable with the sphere of the Agency’s duty led to the rejection of the document by the upper chamber during plenary on Tuesday.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Drugs and Narcotic, Senator Hezekiah Dimka, All Progressives Congress (APC) Plateau Central, while presenting the report to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, said that the Committee uncovered the irregularity in the process of scrutinising the proposed budget presented to it by the Ministry of Finance.
Following the disclosure, Senator Barau Jibrin, Kano North (APC) led Senate Committee on Appropriations discountenanced the fiscal document for the NDLEA, directing the Committee to commence correction processes to eliminate what was believed to be a padding of N4.5billion.
Upper Chamber unravels controversy over N16bn NEWMAP loan
This is just as the Senate Committee on Environment chaired by former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, threw light into another controversial N16billion inserted in the proposed 2022 Appropriation Bill for the repayment of the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP).
In his explanation, Ekweremadu disclosed that the identification and questioning of the N16billion Erosion Management loan repayment by the Committee on Environment came in view following consideration of the loan repayment plan which was meant to be covered by a 10-year moratorium expiring in 2023.
According to him, the Committee discovered there was no need for any provision for the repayment “at this time,” following the term of the 10-year moratorium expiring in 2023.
Ekweremadu who disclosed that the loan ought to be serviced by various State governments, which utilised them, and not the Federal Government, said that if for any reason the Federal government wants to repay the loan, such should be provided for in the service-wide vote, not in the budgets of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, (MDAs).
Ekweremadu said, while there was a N6billion allotment in the Environment budget for the servicing of a multilateral loan regarding erosion control, a project called NEWMAP, about N1.5 billion of it was released to Environment and later the Ministry of Finance wrote, saying it was a mistake, that it was supposed to be part of the service-wide vote for the serving of loans.
He observed that in the 2022 Appropriation Bill, there was a N16billion allocation for the same reason in the Ministry of Environment.
In a statement by his Media Adviser, Uche Anichukwu, Ekweremadu explained: “Regrettably, about N1.5 billion of it was released to Environment and later the Ministry of Finance wrote, saying it was a mistake, that it was supposed to be part of the service-wide vote for the serving of loans. That money was taken back to the Ministry of Finance.
“Surprisingly, in the 2022 Appropriation Bill, there is a N16 billion allocation for the same reason in the Ministry of Environment.
“There is a directive from the leadership of the National Assembly that Committees should not tamper with monies provided for multilateral loans.
“But we in the Committee on Environment decided to find out what this N16 billion is all about, especially with our experience with the N6 billion of last year.
“So, we invited the Ministry to throw more light on the N16bn provision for NEWMAP loan repayment. They now stated that the N16 billion was not in the Ministry’s envelope when they received the envelope. They only saw the N16 billion when the Appropriation Bill was submitted to the National Assembly.
“We also found out that the loan for NEWMAP has a 10-year moratorium, which ends in 2023. So, there was no need for any provision for it at this time.
“We equally found out that about 21 states are beneficiaries of the NEWMAP project and it is their responsibility to repay the loan, not the Federal Government.
“And importantly, if there is any reason for the Federal Government to repay, that should be in the service-wide votes, not in the respective budgets of the MDAs. It is wrong and untidy.”
In the wake of unraveling incongruous items and duplications in the budget of MDAs, the phenomenon of budget padding has come to light as watch financial organisations and the legislative house have been awakened to the need to scrutinise thoroughly the proposed budgets of Federal MDAs.
In May, a public finance transparency advocacy firm, BudgIT, had disclosed that the 2021 national budget contained no less than 316 duplicated capital projects worth N39.5 billion.
Mentioning that the duplication of projects was just one among other loopholes for corruption in the spending plan, the firm had said, “Our investigations into the 2021 budget revealed at least 316 duplicated capital projects worth N39.5 billion, with 115 of those duplicate projects occurring in the Ministry of Health. This is very disturbing, especially considering the health infrastructure deficit and the raging COVID-19 pandemic affecting Nigeria. BudgIT also found zero audit records of the N10.02trillion received by the security sector between 2015 and 2021.”
