4 — SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 26, 2022
C M Y K SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 26, 2022 — 5 206bn Budget Padding: Farouq writes Finance Minister, demands explanation •Insists she has no knowledge of controversial amount inserted in her ministry's budget proposal •Budget office to react next week By Joseph Erunke ABUJA--THE Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, headed by Sadiya Umar Farouq, has written a letter to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, headed by Mrs Zainab Ahmed, seeking clarification on the N206 billion inserted into its 2023 Appropriation Bill. Farouq insisted that she knew nothing about how the controversial figure was inserted into the budget. It is not only the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development who is accusing the Finance Ministry of budget padding. The Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd), also told the Senate during budget defence sessions that the finance ministry had inserted N11bn into his 2023 budget. Similarly, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, pointed accusing fingers at the Finance Ministry for padding his ministry's budget proposals. Worried at the development, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, in a letter dated, Wednesday November 23,2022, dispatched to the Federal Ministry of Finance, requested the cooperation of her finance counterpart in clarifying how the amount came into the budget,given that the 2023 budget proposal her ministry released to the Budget Office did not contain the figure. A meeting convened on Wednesday by the minister and attended by top management staff of the ministry including the permanent secretary and directors,ended in the evening with a resolution that a letter requesting explanation from the finance ministry be transmitted. A source in the Finance and Accounts Department of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development,told Vanguard that the letter was immediately drafted, and sent to the finance ministry. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source said:"As a ministry, we have just sent a letter today (Wednesday) to the Federal Ministry of Finance, requesting clarification on the additional figure inserted into our ministry's budget in the 2023 fiscal year.. "Going by the content,we expect a response from the Ministry of Finance between now and Friday after which we will reach out to the National Assembly on our position. We are disturbed and the minister is not leaving anything to chance. We want a quick clarification of the inserted figure in our ministry's 2023 budget proposal,"he said Also speaking on the issue, a top policy maker in the ministry,who didn't want his name released to the public, •From left: Group head retail marketing and analytics access bank,Chioma Afe; founder Art X; Tokini Peterside-Schwebig and Curator Access Art X 2022/23; Jumoke Sanwo during the Access ART X Prize news conference in Lagos on Friday. Pix by Atolagbe Babatunde said Farouq was embarrassed when she was asked about the amount by members of the Senate Committee on Special Duties when she appeared before the committee to defend her ministry's 2023 budget proposal at the National Assembly. "I was there, the Senate Committee asked the minister how she came about the additional money outside the initial proposal submitted to the Budget Office and the minister responded that she didn't know. Truly, as a ministry,we didn't know how the N206 billion found its way into the ministry 's budget proposal. "Everything about that money, she (minister) actually does not know anything about it. And like I said, as a ministry,we don't know. We just saw it there,"he said Finance Minister fails to react Efforts to obtain the reaction of the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, failed, as she neither picked calls made to her, nor responded to a WhatsApp message sent to her. Budget Office to react next week Spokesman at the Budget Office of the Federation, Olajuwon Afolabi, however told Vanguard that “the matter is too technical for outright response having just surfaced at the National Assembly during the week”. He said the office was working on the appropriate response which he will communicate next week. It will be recalled that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs had told the National Assembly committee that her ministry requested for some projects for the North East D e v e l o p m e n t Commission,NEDC, and the National Social Safety Net Project in the 2022 budget but they were not released, expressing surprise that the money inserted, was now ten times of the 2023 proposed budget of her ministry. The minister who expressed surprise told the Committee that, “Yes we made mention of the projects for 2022 which was not released and part of it was part for the NEDC. “The money was not released and now we have seen it recurring by almost 10 folds and we are also going to clarify from the Ministry of Finance to know why this increase despite the fact that the previous year, the money was not even released for the project. So we will get the details then send to you on that”. The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had expressed disappointment at budget padding, describing it as worrisome. Responding to queries on the issue, while briefing State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Malami said the Federal Government was studying the revelations and would explore available measures to address it. According to him, “the government is concerned and will do what is necessary to address the issue.” Federal lawmakers had raised concerns about the abuse of the budget process following submissions by some government agencies that some amounts were inserted into their estimates without their knowledge allegedly by the ministry of finance. Officials from the National Universities Commission (NUC), Ministries of Defence, Power and Humanitarian Affairs, during ongoing National Assembly budget hearings, disowned some line items running into billions of naira in their 2023 budget proposals. They told lawmakers that they could not explain what the sums were meant for or the details of the projects tied to the funds since they were not part of their proposals sent to the finance ministry for the 2023 fiscal year. They blamed the finance ministry for inserting the money into their budgets. On November 5, 2022, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Rashid, told the joint Senate and House Committee on Tertiary Education and TETfund during budget defence, that N12 billion was inserted by the Ministry of Finance into the agency budget. He said, “In NUC’s budget we have a problem. We had additional money given to us that we didn’t request, but I later went to the Ministry of Finance to find out because our budget was always hovering around N3 billion with about N2 billion for personnel, about N700- N800 million for capital, about N700 million for Sammie Okposo slumps, dies at 51 while being treated for exhaustion •RMD, Righteousman, others mourn By Benjamin Njoku It was a black Friday for the Nigerian entertainment industry as it lost yet another prominent singer, Sammie Okposo to the cold hands of death. Okposo, 51, died yesterday in Lagos after he reportedly slumped while he was being treated for exhaustion. His colleague, Righteousman confirmed the sad news to Saturday Vanguard. He described Okposo's sudden demise as 'tragic', adding that the singer had also collapsed last week upon his return from his praise party concert in the UK and was being treated for exhaustion before he eventually slumped. According to him, the 'Welu Welu' singer was a workaholic who hardly found time to rest. “We should learn to take time to rest, Sammie Okposo was always working. I will personally miss him. He was a great singer who influenced a lot of young Nigerian gospel singers. I know how much I love his music. He served God and not man,” Righteousman said. Also, reacting to the sad news, veteran actor, Richard Mofe Damijo, popularly known as RMD, shared a video he made with the late singer about a month ago in the United States on his Instagram page. In a post, RMD said “This was exactly a month ago in the US. We spent two weeks together and fellowshipped as men. We ate, drank and teased each other. We made plans for the new year… yet here I’m struggling and looking for words to capture our relationship.” “Sam Okpooo as I used to call you, this was not the plan. This one pained me in my heart. My prayers are with your family as you rest in power, peace and Late Sammie Okposo praise.” Comedian Bovi described the palmist as he was fondly called by his fans as “ The most angelic voice I ever heard.” Okposo’s last Instagram post was 22 hours ago before his demise. It was a video of his praise party tagged, SOPP live in Lagos, which was held on Friday, November 4, 2022. The late singer was slated to minister, alongside other gospel singers, Eben, Chuks Praise, Joy Favour, and Victor Edit at the Outpouring A s s e m b l y International in Calabar between F r i d a y , November 25 and Sunday, 27. In 2020, the Delta State-born music star had a close shave with death after the propeller shaft of his car pulled off while on motion on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos. Okposo, who was one of Nigeria’s renowned gospel singers, set the internet agog early this year when he took to his Instagram page to apologize to his wife, Ozioma after cheating on her with another woman in the United States in an incident that happened in 2021. The scandal, however, took a toll on his ministry as the singer made the decision to take time off from ministry in order to retrace his steps. But he overhead. But last year, we saw an additional N12 billion given for World Bank projects. The World Bank projects are not processed through this mode.” Also on November 17, the Ministry of Defence during a budget hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Defence blamed the finance ministry for the N10.8bn inserted into their budget. The vice chairman of the committee, Senator Istifanus Gyang, said N8.6bn was discovered to have been allocated for the purchase of military hardware and N2.25bn for Safe School Initiative. “The two items, when critically viewed, were not supposed to be in the ministry’s budget since hardware procurements are done by the army, navy and air force; and the Safe School Initiative by the Federal Ministry of Education,” he said. Responding, the Permanent Secretary, Ibrahim Abubakar Kana, said the money was inserted into the ministry’s budget by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning. On November 1, the Senate Committee on Power also discovered N195bn earmarked as counterpart funding for bilateral and multilateral projects in the ministry of power’s 2023 budget proposal. The chairman of the committee, Senator Gabriel Suswam, in an interview, said his panel, after interfacing with the officials of the ministry during the budget defence session, found out that even the ministry was not aware of the projects. Suswam said budgetary allocations for such projects were being made every year but they were never seen, and that the power ministry could not explain how the money was expended. Senators and House of Representatives members said the revelations by heads of agencies, blaming the finance ministry for unknown line items in their budget estimates vindicated members of the National Assembly who are mostly being accused of budget padding. They said the situation was worrisome, especially at a time the country requires fiscal discipline in the face of falling revenue and increasing deficits. later tendered an apology, while deleting the message on Instagram and moved on with his life. As the CEO of Zamar Entertainment, Okposo began his music career as a soundtrack producer for Nollywood in 1992. He later started the Sammie Okposo Praise Party, a platform he used to train upcoming gospel artistes. He released his first album, Addicted, in 2004. Some of his evergreen songs include, “‘Welu Welu,’ a traditional track he rendered in pidgin, ‘Naija Praise’, ‘Jump and Shout’, ‘Jehovah Idi Ebube’ Okposo also collaborated with many other artists in the gospel and soul music fields, including popular gospel singer Marvellous Odiete on “Follow You”, a song that he performed regularly in Africa, Europe, and North America, and curated a series of concerts called SOPP (Sammie Okposo Praise Party). His most recent album, The Statement (2018), was produced by the Grammywinning Kevin Bond.
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