The allegation of budget padding is back. After much furore that greeted the allegation of padding of the 2016 budget by the leadership of the House of Representation which came to nothing, the Senate this time allegedly said it uncovered N16.3 billion padding by the Ministry of Power in its 2018 Budget estimates.
The Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy on Monday said it uncovered repetition of votes earlier approved in the 2017 budget, duplication of estimates already defended by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, lack of details on releases and expenditures, as well as cost of contracts, their level of execution and balance for their completion.
According to the documents the ministry submitted to the Committee N2.8 billion for construction of 215mw LPFO/Gas power station, compensation of 98 communities for crop/economic trees affected by the construction of Zungeru 700mw hydro project put at N500 million, Zungeru hydropower project (basic amenities 11) classroom N438 million and internal road network N430 million were found to be duplications.
Also in the document were counterpart funding for 3020mw Mambilla hydropower at N8.5 billion; settlement of the outstanding liability, N4 billion; monitoring, evaluation and verification of power sector performance, wide N500 million; and detailed engineering design, project management and supervision of the 3050mw Mambilla hydroelectric power project, N512 million.
In addition, N120 million, N480 million and N288 million were budgeted for the purchase of utility vehicles and N100 million for transfer and management of office files and documents.
The ministry represented by the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mustapha Baba Shahuri, and the Permanent Secretary, Frank Edozie, failed to satisfactorily answer the numerous questions posed to them by the members of the Senate Committee on the duplications.
Speaking at the budget defence, members of the committee were furious at the shady budget, taking turns to condemn it.
Senator Mohammed Hassan described as vague. According to Hassan: “The National Assembly has approved counterpart finding for Mambila project in the 2017 budget. “It appears again in 2018. “From the first item to the last item in the budget, there are several questions needed to be answered.”
Chairman of the committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said: “Nobody is satisfied with vague items in this budget.” “We will take it that the 2017 budget was abysmally low at only 18 percent performance.If we take it, then we can go to 2018 (budget proposal),” “This is unacceptable and I need to put it on record.”
Senator Bukar Mustapha drew the attention of the committee to the Mambilla project, for which money was borrowed to finance, but appeared again in the 2018 Budget of the Ministry.
In his own submission, Senator Mao Ohabunwa wondered how the Ministry of Power could be making a budget for primary healthcare centres and building of primary schools, adding that Ministry lacks the capacity to embark on such projects. “Ministry of Works should not be talking about primary health care centre, primary school.
“There should be synergy among the ministries. “You don’t have the capacity for primary health care and primary school.
“We don’t need to consider this budget because it is not your responsibility to build primary health care centres and primary schools.”
The committee asked the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) to appear before it at a new date for the budget defence while asking the Ministry of Power to provide all the details they requested.
