- As Lai wants information budget jacked up to tackle fake news
By Christiana Ekpa
Separate House of Representatives Committees yesterday rejected 2023 budget proposals of two federal agencies.
While the House committee on Foreign Affairs said it will not subject the 2023 budget presentation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to legislative scrutiny following some alleged infractions going on in the Ministry, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account also rejected the N5.112 billion estimated budget for Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2023 appropriation.
This is as the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, played Oliver Twist, pleading with the House of Representatives to increase the budgetary allocation to his ministry and parastatals under it.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Yusuf Buba disclosed this on Wednesday when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared before the Committee for its 2023 Budget Defense.
He said “on the 18th of January, I wrote a letter to the Minister informing him that we are in the know that Embassies can now form tenders board to spend their capital component of the budget and in the 20th of the same month the ministry sent a telex telling the Embassies not to comply with this directives.
“On the 19 we sent another letter to the missions directly since the Ministry has asked them not to comply with the National Assembly directive to obey the law of the land, the Ministry sent another letter on the 16th of June signed by Ambassador Janet that they should not adhere to those laws.
“It was at that point Mr. Speaker invited you and your team and then we showed you these communications which you said these letters did not get to you but your Perm Secretary sent the first letter a day after Ambassador Janet sent the second letter specifically directing the Embassies not to obey section 10 of the Appropriation Act and then recently on the 6th of September 2022 I also sent a letter to the office of the Minister reminding you that the Ammended Appropriation Act has been accented to by Mr President making it a law of the land, asking you to inform the Embassies to start implementing the law.
“The committee went on oversight, non of the Embassies we visited received the telegraph to implement that.
“On the 23rd of September, I sent another letter reminding you of section 7 of the Appropriation Act but yet the Embassies were not communicated.
“Hon. Minister your staff have been writing telex even though you are not aware, it is expected that you are aware.
“Messages have been sent to Embassies to disregard and disrecpect the laws of federal republic of Nigeria so that is why we will not take your budget presentation of 2023 until these infractions are adhered to.
“That we will not consider the present 2023 appropriation proposal of the Ministry until it does the following :
“Direct all Missions to abide by Section 10 of the 2022 Appropriation Act (as amended).
“Furnish the National Assembly with the 2023 Budget Proposals in respect to targeted revenues from administrative charges at the Missions and Embassies
Also, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account yesterday rejected the N5.112 billion estimated budget for Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2023 appropriation.
The committee equally summoned the minister of finance, budget and National planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Sylva Okolieaboh and the Director General, Budget Office the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze, giving the trio a seven-day ultimatum to appear and explain why the budget of such a strategic office should be so meagre.
Chairman of the House committee on PAC, Hon. Wole Oke announced this at the budget defence session at the National Assembly.
Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Andrew Onwudili had while briefing the committee disclosed that though the office proposed a total budget of N11.151 billion, what the budget office approved was N5.112 billion.
According to him, the office had proposed a personnel cost of N3.041 billion as against the N2.349 billion contained in the budget, a proposal of N5.59 billion for overhead costs as against the N2.113 billion, and a proposal of N2.52 billion against the N62.70 million contained in the budget estimates.
In his response, Hon. Oke said “It is very important at this point in time to state clearly observations. We want to observe that, the government of President Buhari was elected based on his promise, determination to tame corruption, to humble corruption in our country.
“And one of the institutions, as a matter of fact, the fundamental institution, which the crafters of our constitution put in place under Section 85 is the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
“By an Act of the Parliament, we have created ancillary institutions like ICPC, EFCC to work with the products,, with the findings of the Office of the Auditor General’s office after due consideration by the parliament.
“It is very unfortunate that we have noticed the concerted effort, determination to undermine the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. To eradicate, to repeal illegally the Supreme audit institution of this country.
“We have seen the determination of the lieutenants of Mr President, particularly the minister of finance, the DG Budget office to undermine Mr. President in his determination to wage war against corruption on the land”.
The lawmaker said “Otherwise, why would you allocate several billions to ancillary institutions and you are giving N62 million to the office of the Auditor General of the Federation to fund capital? They have to go cap in hand to pay workers?
“They are understaffed, they are undermined? They cannot conduct performance audit. As we speak, this office is yet to lay their reports in respect of 2022 and 2021 financial years.
“We are saying that, we are determined to wage war against corruption. We cannot see how we intend to achieve the objectives, based on which budget is formulated.
Meanwhile, Lai Muhammed said much funding was needed to effectively disseminate information about the achievements and deliveries of the President Muhammadu Buhari APC led administration, tackle fake news, disinformation and hate speech.
The minister said that N345 million for capital expenditure was grossly inadequate for the enormous tasks ahead.
Mohammed made the plea while giving details of the 2022 budget performance and 2023 budget defense of the ministry and its agencies before the House of Representatives Committee on Information.
He said: “I want express my gratitude to the House, this Committee in particular. This is probably farewell to budget defence, especially for me. I’m grateful to the Chairman for the last seven years for his understanding and support.
“I want to draw the House attention to the fact that the ministry of information has been dealt a very heavy card in this year’s budgetary allocation. In 2022 the National Assembly approved N2.5 billion for this ministry, as capital of which N1 billion belongs to information. This year the capital provision for the entire ministry of information and culture is N869 million, of which only N345 million is for information. I fully understand the current challenges the country is facing, but I don’t agree that the ministry of information and culture at this critical time should have less, it actually should have more.
“I did argue this even at the level of the Executive. I said that even if we stop any capital project, if the ministry of information is given enough money. We can be chronicling and telling the world everyday, what we have achieved in the last eight years.
“Please this House should do whatever they can, this N345 million capital expenditure I don’t know where to start. Because if you expect so much from us the least you can do for us is to provide the tools.
“Our contribution as a ministry to peace and stability is not quantifiable. So, when you start judging us on the same template with other ministries, I think we are forgetting the fact that our contribution in deepening understanding between the government and the governed, ensuring that disinformation is tackled everyday cannot be quantified.”
