Lawmakers to summon finance minister over N206bn budget padding

Lawmakers to summon finance minister over N206bn budget padding

*As Humanitarian Minister blames Ahmed for N206bn budget insertion

The Senate Committee on Special Duties to defend the 2023 budget has resolved to summon the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed to explain the N206 billion inserted in the 2023 budget.

This was because the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, revealed to the lawmakers at the ministry budget defense that the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, added N206 billion to her ministry’s budget.

Farouq, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Special Duties to defend the 2023 budget, revealed that the ministry requested some projects for the North East Development Commission and the National Social Safety Net Project in the 2022 budget, which were not released, but was surprised to see an inflated amount in the 2023 budget of the ministry.

The budget defense was soured when Senator Elisha Abbo (APC Adamawa North) asked the minister about the inflated N206billion in the budget.

The minister said, “Yes, we made mention of the projects for 2022 that were not released, and part of it was for the NEDC.

“The money was not released, and now that we have seen it recurring by almost 10-fold, we are also going to seek clarification from the Ministry of Finance to know why the increase occurred despite the fact that the previous year, the money requested wasn’t released for the projects. So, we will get the details and then send them to you.”

Also last week, the defence minister also told the senate that Ahmed inserted a total of N11billion into its 2023 budget; the minister of health also accused her of budget padding.

Abbo, who expressed shock at the minister’s revelation, stated, “This is serious. We cannot continue to borrow money and plunge this country into debt for our children to come and pay without investing in what they will see.”