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Udeze Ekene
Guest
The House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals has told the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, to provide a detailed report on how money allocated to the ministry in the 2024 budget was spent.
The House Committee led by Gbewfi Jonathan Gaza made the demand when the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mary Ogbe, appeared before it to defend their 2024 budget.
The committee expressed dissatisfaction that the Ministry of Solid Minerals could not provide details of how money approved for the ministry in the 2024 budget was spent.
Gaza-led committee, therefore, mandated the Ministry to provide all the projects, budget codes, budget items, appropriated amounts, contractors, amount awarded, date of award, and the status of all projects by next Tuesday.
“We are expecting the budget and we cannot appropriate if we do not know the true status of the utilization of what has been given you in 2024.
“We were quite detailed when we sent you the documents we required. You must provide details of all the projects, budget codes, budget items, appropriated amount, contractors, the amount awarded, date of award, the status of the projects, the percentage with regards to performance, and the lot numbers among others.
“So all these individual items must be captured in detail in this document so that Nigerians would know how the money that has been appropriated has been utilized.
“There are a number of projects that were not captured in the presentation to the Committee. There was no explanation whatsoever,” Gaza said.
Speaking further, Gaza said the committee would not accept any excuse. “Don’t give us any half-baked documents again. Every line must be adhered to. And give us the advertisement that was done, the code, the contractors and everything. Even if it is before the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Kindly put it in the remark section. Go and work on your documents again and make a proper presentation. Let’s have a comprehensive submission,” he said.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Ogbe, who represented the Minister, Dele Alake, said a total of ₦25.05 billion was appropriated as expenditure outlay for the ministry in the 2024 budget.
“This comprised ₦894.4 million as overhead cost and ₦23.15 billion as capital expenditure. The personnel cost of the Ministry was captured in captured still in the Ministry of Steel Development for 2024 because the personnel separation had not been fully executed.
“On appropriation releases to the Ministry, she said for overhead, the total appropriation is ₦895, 441, 335. As of October 31st, 2024, ₦745, 367, 779 had been released. Balances as of October 31, are ₦149, 073, 555. The percentage of releases of the appropriation for the overhead is 83 percent.
“Expenditure on release is the same amount that has been released. So there is a hundred percent performance. For capital appropriation, it is ₦23, 150, 884, 863. Out of which ₦2, 724, 818, 977 have been released. 11 percent had been released and the percentage performance is 100 percent,” Ogbe stated.
She added that the “ministry achieved a 100 percent utilization mainly of non-debt recurrent expenditure and the percentage utilization in the capital as of the end of October is 11 percent.
“This is because the procurement process is still ongoing and some are awaiting FEC approval. With the bottom-up cash plan, works must be executed before payment.”
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