Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed
Eko Hot Blog reports that the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, appeared before the Nigerian Senate on Monday, and clarified a budget padding allegation.
The senators had summoned Ahmed to explain insertions into the 2023 budgetary allocations of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
She was summoned after the heads of the affected MDAs could not provide the explanations for the insertions in their budgets. Most of them expressed ignorance of the allocations and said the finance ministry was in a better position to explain.
During an appearance before the Senate in November, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, told the Senate Committee on Special Duties that she did know how N206 billion was inserted into her ministry’s 2023 budget by the ministry of finance.
Besides the humanitarian ministry, another N8.6 billion was discovered in the budget of the Ministry of Defence, N195.5 billion in the estimates for the Ministry of Power, among others – all of whom feigned ignorance.
On Monday, the finance minister explained the allocations, blaming the heads of the MDAs for failing to scrutinise their budgetary proposals, which she said caused the confusion.
She singled out the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, who had claimed ignorance of a budgetary allocation, but later apologised for his action.
“…it is the realisation of which made the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magsshi to apologise after feigning ignorance of N8.6 billion in his ministry’s budget during interface with Senate Committee on Defence,” she said.
Ahmed told the Senate panel that all the allocations were approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) before the budget presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari in October.
“All the proposed budgetary sums like the N206 billion in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the N8.6 billion in the Ministry of Defence , N195 billion in the estimates for the Ministry of Power, were all captured before presentation by Mr President,” she said.
“Most of these sums are bilateral or multilateral loans captured in the budget of agencies selected for project execution for the sole purpose of transparency.”
She said the totality of such loans captured in the proposed budget of the relevant agencies is N1.771 trillion.
Subsequently, the committee chairman, Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano North), said the clarifications made by the minister were “well understood by all the committee members.”
He also commended her for “ensuring transparency with capturing of such loans or grants in the budget.”
The passage of the 2023 budget is in its final stages.
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