N378.9bn: Ministry of Finance refutes alleged project insertion in 2022 budget
By Matthew Denis Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has refuted allegations regarding project duplication N378.9bn in the 2022 budget.
Speaking exclusively to Nigerian NewsDirect on Monday, The Director of Information of the Ministry, Mr. Oshundun Olajide said, “I haven’t seen the story anyway, and I don’t believe in the story if there’s any padding of the budget.
“I don’t think it can be ascribed to the Ministry of Finance. The ministry only Coordinated the budget with the Budget Office and presented it to the National Assembly for vetting. Except if anybody says the ministry of finance is directly involved then we can speak to it.
“We all know that the budget figure wasn’t what was presented by the Executive that the National Assembly approved, they added to the figure for reasons best known to them. So the allegation on padding could be what the National Assembly added which I don’t know.”
The Director stressed that such information can only come from the National Assembly not from the Ministry.
Earlier, an online platform – BudgIT, A data-driven Nigerian civic organisation alleged that Projects amounting to N378.9billion were allegedly inserted in the 2022 budget.
According to BudgIT the projects were inflated projects amounting to billions of naira directly linked to the State House and the Presidency. They include a N20.8 billion request by the Presidency to construct a 14-bed presidential wing at the existing State House Medical Center, N28.7 million requested for the purchase of 2 units of 10KG washing machine and 6 units of LG Televisions in the State House Lagos Liaison Office, among others.
Likewise, four recreational parks under the Ministry of Environment, have a total allocation of N67.8 million to construct “Gun Armouries” in Cross Rivers, Kaduna, Borno & Yobe States, even though the Ministry of Environment is not a security agency.
In a statement on Monday, January 17, 2022, signed by its Communications Associate, Iyanu Fatoba, BudgIT said the alleged 316 duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 FG Budget, approved by NASS, were discovered by the NGO while Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) validated 257.
BudgIT stressed that the National Agency For Great Green Wall, set up to prevent land degradation and desertification afflicting 11 states in northern Nigeria, and to boost food security in the country, has N1.3 billion or 64% of its capital budget dedicated to purchasing Motorcycles, Street lights and other projects outside its mandate.
The platform noted that as Nigeria is currently battling double-digit inflation, one of the worst 20 out of 196 countries in the world, the BudgIT raised concern that the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA), under the Ministry of Water Resources set up to deal with food prices, has instead metamorphosed into an agency that constructs roads and supplies street lights with a total of N6.3 billion budget to supplying street lights, and N14.8 billion for construction of 219 roads across 36 states.
