Members of the House of Representatives, who met with the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Emeka Wogu, protested against the ministry’s spending of additional N184 million on trips last year without the approval of the National Assembly.
Only last Thursday, the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) headed by former Defence Minister, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, took the campaign against high cost of governance in Nigeria to President Goodluck Jonathan in Aso Rock, Abuja.
But the elder council’s pleas to the President for a cut in the overhead costs of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) seems not to have meant anything to some public officials, including ministers, whose provisions for overhead costs in the 2011 budget are considered outrageous.
At the defence of the 2011 budget of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity yesterday before the House House Committee on Labour and Productivity, Wogu asked the lawmakers to approve N622.5 million for the ministry’s foreign and local trips.
Curiously, the ministry spent N285.7 million on local trips alone in 2010 as against the N128.6 million appropriated for that purpose.
He said of the ministry’s N9.13 billion budget now before the National Assembly, N300 million would be spent on local travels and N322.5 million for international tours in the current year.
But the committee members were not happy that the ministry spent over N184 million as extra expenditure on trips in 2010 without the consent of the National Assembly.
The ministry also spent N263.1 million on foreign trips last year as opposed to the N78.85 million appropriated for that purpose.
In his defence, Wogu said: “There are many international labour conferences and meetings worldwide that are mandatory for us to attend. These include three meetings per year holding in Geneva. Each one costs an average of N40 million; the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ministers of Labour Congress, African Regional Labour Arbitration Centre and Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU) and others that cost an average of N20 million per trip. They are mandatory meetings of which Nigeria is executive member in some of the bodies.”
On the local travel and transport components of the budget, the minister said: “Specifically, we had travel commitments of over N71 million that could not be accommodated due to the revised budget of 2010. We believe that an increase of up to 60 per cent in the proposed budget could be reasonable.”
The NN9.15 billion budget of the ministry is made up of N8.283 billion for personnel and overhead costs and a capital vote of N775.9 million. The proposed personnel and overhead costs are N4.995 billion and N3.288 billion in that order.
Earlier the panel’s chairman, Ado Dogo Audu told the minister that the meeting was necessary for the lawmakers to appraise the ministry’s performance in 2010 as well as the justification for the 2011 proposals.
Other highlights of the ministry’s budget include N250.5 million for the training of “500 members of staff across various cadres in the headquarters and the 36 states of the federation, N72 million for security services, N52.5 million for cleaning and fumigation of the ministry’s headquarters and the 36 state offices, and N70.2 million for meetings of the Labour Advisory Council, among others.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has waded into the protracted crisis of debts and its attendant grounding of Nigerian carriers indebted to aviation agencies.
A source said the Presidency had directed that henceforth aviation agencies should now withdraw the five per cent Tickets and Cargo Sales (TSC) charges directly from the airlines’ banks through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The directive takes immediate effect, the official said.
The five per cent TSC is added to the cost of tickets sold by airlines, but it was discovered that the airlines fail to remit the money that has risen to over N5 billion to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
The inability of the carriers to remit the money as at when due has led to the agencies withdrawing their services, which in turn has led to dislocation in air travel.
In order not to make process cumbersome for passengers, the agencies reached an agreement with the airlines to collect the money on behalf of the aviation sector’s regulators and be paid to NCAA’s account of NCAA.
Prior to the alleged directive by the President, the airlines after the pact had defaulted in paying the charges to the agencies.
By the presidential order, the five per cent TSC charges will now be deducted directly from their bank accounts of the airlines. Consequently, the airlines are to choose one banker to serve as a general collector, which will liaise with other banks to collect the money and pay into the NCAA’s account with the CBN. The money will then be disbursed to the benefitting aviation agencies.
According to the directive, NCAA, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) have met with the airlines, their legal firms and computer firms on how to perfect the modalities for the payment, which will be done electronically.
Guardian
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