Senate rejects N23bn capital budget for Niger Delta Ministry
As Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) continue their 2020 budget defence, the Senate Committee on Niger Delta has rejected the 2020 capital budget of N23 billion for the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
The sum of N23 billion was earmarked for capital project out of the total budget of N25, 910, 486, 285.
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The committee lamented the many uncompleted projects in the nine states of the Niger Delta region.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi expressed this displeasure when the Minister, Godswill Akpabio appeared before the committee on Monday.
He said that “there is no state; I dare to say that there is no local government where there is no abandoned projects in the Niger Delta.
“We cannot continue like that. With all the abandoned projects in the Niger Delta and we are talking about new projects; these new projects are designed to fail.
“Honourable minister, we need to look at this budget again and we expect you to do your clean -up because the document we need were not supplied to us.”
Another member of the committee, Senator Sandy Ojang (Cross River Central) said that “we just looked at the presentation and we are faced again with the vanity of having a budget and almost through the budget year, there are no capital releases.
“It calls for concern and deep worry. In a budget situation where the capital outlay is even lower than personnel and other cost is an issue. But, to speak of a situation where nothing is released for capital is a tragedy.”
He called for a collective effort by the National Assembly and the executive to ensure putting in place a credible budget document.
In his defence, Akpabio said that in 2019, N35. 2 billion and N877 million were allocated to the Ministry of Niger Delta for capital and overhead expenditure respectively.
He decried that out of the capital appropriation of N35.2 billion, no fund has been received, adding that “a total budget proposal of the N25.9 billion was allocated to the ministry; personnel (N1,14 billion), overhead (N877 million) and capital N23.8 billion.”
Reacting to the rejection of the budget by the committee members, Akpabio said that the budget was not rejected.
“The senators feel that there ought to be completion of major projects that are already in the Niger Delta. I agree with them, but unfortunately, we are working under a very tight envelope.
“The ministry was allocated N23 billion and 60 per cent of it will go to already existing projects in the region and so 40 per cent will go to probably new projects in the region.
“So, if you look at it very well, it is not possible for you to capture all projects with that amount and it is not even going to be possible to complete even 10 kilometres of road in the region.
“So, I think instead of saying that the budget was rejected, I think that the distinguished senators should collectively make an appeal to the minister of finance, budget and national planning to improve upon the envelope to expand it a little,” he enthused.
