Senate alleges inflation of education budget by N10b
A FRESH controversy is brewing over the 2016 Appropriation Bill President Muhammadub Buhari submitted to the National Assembly.
The Senate Committee on Education yesterday alleged that during its scrutiny of the budget , it discovered that the provision for the education sector was inflated by N10 billion.
There had been a controversy over the budget with allegations that the document, submitted by Buhari to a joint session of the legislature last month, was missing or that a “fake” version was submitted to the lawmakers.
Experts have also criticised the heavy reliance on borrowing and pronouncements by the president that retrieved looted funds would form part of the revenue to drive the proposals in the face of dwindling oil revenue on which the country’s economy had relied over the years even though some others hailed it for the tilt towards capital expenditure.
At the budget-defence session with the committee, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, was dumbfounded when confronted with questions on how the personnel budget for pararastatals under the ministry was increased from N88,199,311,758 billion in 2015 to N98,181,570,237 billion in the 2016 budget document.
Unable to explain the anomaly, the minister simply claimed ignorance of the padded budget and asked the Senate committee to take the matter up with the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Folasade Yemi-Esan.
The Chief Whip of the Senate, Olusola Adeyeye, who is a member of the committee had drawn the attention of other members of the committee to the fact that in 2015 personnel cost of parastatals in the ministry amounted to N88,119,758 pointing out that it was increased to N98,181,570,237 in this year’s budget document.
According to him, this was the only sub-head under which allocation was so increased, a development he disclosed as suspicious.
Stunned by the revelation, Chairman of the Committee and former Governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko, quickly asked Anwuka to explain the cause of the padding.
The minister, claimed that he was not part of the preparation of the budget document. He diplomatically requested Wamakko to direct the question to the permanent secretary.
In a failed attempt to defend the padding, Yemi-Esan said: “The variants, it depends on the number of people that still exist on the IPPIS. So, it’s an automatic thing. As people retire, automatically, the balance comes down. So, if they are not replaced by new staff then we will have this variant. So, it’s not that we lost some money. If during the year, a number of people have retired, then the balance at the end of the year will be reduced.
“This is just an aggregation of all the parastatals. So, we will look at it and see which ones because it’s off hand now, I don’t know which ones had the increase or if there is a marginal increase across board. Because what we have done here is to put together all the parastatals.
But we can look at the details and find out which ones are increasing. But having this was not something that was imposed on the universities or polytechnics. They were the ones that submitted their personnel cost. It is not an imposition. It is what each university submitted that we collated and put together.”
Not satisfied with Yemi-Esan’s response, the committee directed the ministry to reappear and make a proper presentation to explain the padded budget.
Wamakko declared:”Permanent Secretary, what you are saying is not enough. Maybe you need to be given time to give us the true position because the issue involved is enormous. I need a good answer … I am not happy with the answer given.”
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17 Comments
The Presidency and all the APC gang ruling Nigeria with fake (Oluwole) certificates want to use the excess N10 billion naira to buy authentic forged certificates that will be able to show them with degrees and certificates tucked in to many Nigerian universities. They need the money desperately since OBJ just graduated through Open University (ahahaahahahahahah) I dey laugh no wonder Nigeria economy is going down the drain and people are suffering with incompetent people
The attention being paid to the education allocation is good .It is padded right? All these NASS crooks never paid no attention to their own salary and benefit budget. All the NASS members, ministers, and permanent secretaries have their own AGENDA ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Education can get as improved attention but not through fake document. What is evil remains bad. If the president finds out his celebrated budget falls short of vision and reality he is free to send a supplementary budget. We are in an informed World.
Are u dat sick to read and understand this simple piece? It’s not d expedition on the education per say now but increase in “personnel” expenditure huuh!!! Read it again and get some clue. The Executive is there to check the excesses of the NASS, if they can’t do dt that’s their problem and the effect in us the masses.
What do Nigerians expect from an illiterate? Present a budget, suddenly decided to steal the document through aids on discovering it is full of rubbish and out of sync with reality. On sensing failure decided to adulterate the National Assembly with a fake version of the budget. The same fellow fighting everybody including the Judiciary through Corruption label. Sickening!
“The Senate Committee on Secondary School Education, on Monday, queried the decision of the Federal Ministry of Education to increase the personnel cost of parastatals under it by about N10bn in the 2016 fiscal year”. Read between the lines and dont make senseless comments. Try and broading your horizon.
I guess the adjustment was made without the consent of the man in charge- president, huh? You need to think beyond the horizon now man. This is still a tip of the iceberg, if the Senate decide to do their job well many embarrassing blows still coming, all consequences of the “stolen, founded, amended” shenenagian that took place which in turn was as a result of the wily propensity of this dilly dally govt
Why will it take the Senate to query such obvious flaws in a budget that went through the controversial circumstances everyone except you already know. You are the one that requires more understanding.
what we need in this country in sincerity. what is the meaning of inflation of budget that has not been passed? This means increase in allocation to the education sector. most of your making comments against an individual simply lack knowledge on the realities on ground. Budget is not prepaid by one man but a group headed by one man.
Read #TheWeekInPictures Feb 2016 Week One at https://20read.com/2016/02/01/theweekinpictures-feb-2016-week-one/
The world should take note of this. The government that claim to be fighting corruption is even the most corrupt, what they were unable to achieve in 16yrs they want to make it in 1yr. The 10 billion was coded in the education budget so that they can siphon it into private pocket. I know a lot will still be uncovered. That was why the budget was stolen. if it is a transparent government they would have explain how comes about the disparity about the 2015 and 2016 education budget in the house. But, they purposely kept mute because they have hidden agenda. Is the inflation on the educational budget not corruption? Change indeed!
Madam – you go school so? Stop being naive and dig for facts without bias! Stop being a typical Nigerian please!!!!
The two NASS houses are authentic enemies of the ordinary Nigerian. They are there for national cake and now that only crumbs is left of the cake, they are fighting back in a dirty and shameless manner.
Simply comparing the total budgets of 2015 with that of 2016 assumes all was well with 2015 budget and the claim of years of neglect of the education sector was false. Also I hope NASS is taking into account the fact that there might have been cases of netting off income against expenditure in 2015 which suppresses actual expenditure. This may not be the case with 2016 budget because of the requirements of Single treasury account, where income is separately identified and properly accounted for.
And special forensic searchlights should beam on the monumentally cyclopean budgetary self — allocations of fast talking information ministry,, inec,, efcc, etc
The whole budget is a complete joke, filled with avenue for looting, abuse, unnecessary expenditure and pure waste. if we had good lawmakers, they would be going over every single line of expenditure, to get a good explanation of the expense and to eventually cut those expenses. we are borrowing money to finance this budget, yet the president is allow every MDA to repurchase new vehicle ( pretty sure all those vehicle would be imported, which would create more pressure on the reserves), to be renovation management homes, and various other useless spending. At a time when the operating budget should be cut by at least 20% and the money focus on revenue generating capital projects.
While they are at it, the hypocritical senate should investigate the “who is who” and “who took what” in the scandal of the 55 Nigerians who the FGN revealed looted N1.4 trillion from Nigeria in the recent past 7 years. With our children watching, their failure to do so may be why Nigeria’s education system is in a mess
After all, N10 billion pales in comparison to N1.4 trillion
We will review and take appropriate action.