From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Minister of Finance and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said it is not true that the sum of N206,242,395,000 2023 budget proposal of Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management and Social Development.
Ahmed stated this, on Tuesday, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation. She explained that the sum was for the National Social Safety Nets Project – Scale Up (NSSNP-SU).
However, the minister noted that “regrettably, a wrong code was inadvertently used in the process of inputting it, which resulted in it being captured as Purchase of Security Equipment in the GIFMIS Budget Preparation System (BPS), which has a limited dropdown range of project descriptions/codes.”
Ahmed, while offering explainations on alleged wrong insertions in the budget proposals of the Ministries of Defence, Education and Power, said the allegations that that her ministry allegedly padded the budget of the affected MDAs were baseless..
The Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Hon Aliyu Betara, while speaking at the parley, berated the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, for going to press over the alleged padding without trying to sort out the mix up.
Betara also frowned at Farouk’s absence at the parley,
she was in the habit of not honouring the invitation of relevant committees of the House. He admonished the minister to quit, if she was tired of her job..
