Reps shocked, throw out Ministry of Communications budget

The House of Representatives Committee on Telecommunications on Thursday was shocked about the finances of Ministry of Communications and rejected the N6.97 billion 2017 budget proposal.


The rejection followed the ministry’s failure to provide satisfactory details of the 2016 budget expenditure.

The ministry proposed to spend N5.96 billion for capital projects, N742.88 million for personnel, while N216.88 million was proposed for overhead cost.

The committee, chaired by Rep. Saheed Fijabi asked the minister, Dr Adebayo Shittu to provide documents on projects, project locations, third party contracts, and receipt vouchers for conferences, trainings and nominal roll for the ministry.

The Committee said it would not consider the 2017 budget estimates of the ministry until it embarked on an on-the-spot assessment of the projects contained in the budget.

The minister, who appeared before the committee, refused to explain the details of the budget.

He explained that the Permanent Secretary, Mr Sunday Echono, who is the accounting officer of the ministry, was in the best position to respond to the specifics of the document.

In his presentation, the minister said that contrary to what was on record, the ministry only received N3.96 billion as against the N4.91 billion that was budgeted and recorded for the ministry on Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS).