Unspent Fund: House Cttee Threatens Zero Allocation For Transport Ministry

The joint House of Representative Committee on Transport has threaten zero allocation to the Ministry of Transport after it discovered that the ministry is yet to utilise some of the appropriated funds approved for 2016.Speaking when the joint House Committee on Aviation, Land Transport, Maritime Safety and Administration, and Ports, Harbour and Waterways visited the ministry on oversight function, the chairman , House Committee on Maritime Safety and Administration, Hon. Mohammed Umaru Bago queried why the ministry is delaying in giving out contracts for projects which have been appropriated for.According to him, it is obvious the ministry is not ready to spend money and there are other problems to tackle with money in Nigeria; if the ministry does not use the funds appropriated for basic use, we will give them zero allocation for 2017 budget.Most of the figures in the document they presented are not consistent and that is why we have asked for a new document as well as other related documents in order to ascertain the value of what the projects are all about. We are not appropriating funds to them until we have a clear document. Let me tell you and reassure you of something, if we dont have the facts and figures, Ministry of Transportation will get zero allocation.Let me tell you something, they have received N243bn and they have not spent it, when other people like ministry of health need funds for people are dying of meningitis. Nigerian army officers are dying in Sambisa because there is no money to fund the soldiers and the Ministry of Transportation is sitting on billions of naira released to them and not utilised.If not because of the extension that was given to them till May, by the end of this month, this money would have been swept by the Ministry of Finance. We have just come out of a presentation, based on the presentation they gave us we have seen zero spending.
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