Nigeria senate uncovers N10bn excess in 2016 education budget

The Senate, through its Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) yesterday, uncovered N10billion said to have been tucked into budgets of parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education which could not be properly explained by officials of the ministry.

At a budget defence session with the Senate Committee on Education, the Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka, was dumbfounded when confronted with questions on how the personnel budget for parastatals under the ministry was hiked from N88, 199,311,758 billion in 2015 to N98, 181,570,237 billion in 2016 budget document.

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, adding that it was increased to N98,181,570,237 in this year’s budget document.

Adeyeye wondered why parastatals which were meant to support the institutions should have their personnel budget increased by such a huge sum. He therefore demanded for explanation.

“If you look at personnel cost on page 28, almost every sub-sector of the ministry lost some money except parastatals that got increase. What is special about the parastatals that they gained more than universities, colleges, polytechnics and unity schools? Why should the parastatals that are meant to serve them keep growing in personnel cost?” Adeyeye queried.

The minister pushed the question to the permanent secretary who, for want of expression, said they would go back to look into it.

She said: “We will go back and find the aggregate of the parastatals put together so that we can look into the details and find out those that are increasing and the difference between them.”

Dissatisfied by that response, Adeyeye insisted that the ministry must explain how a whopping sum of N10 billion was added to the parastatals’ personnel budget at the expense of institutions which actually need budget increase.

Newswatchtimes