The Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriation, Senator Jibrin Barau on Thursday ruled out the non-release of capital and recurrent funds to Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government for 2021 as challenges confronting them.
The lawmaker was reacting to questions by journalists at an interactive session on the ongoing budget defence by agencies and parastatals of government in Abuja.
Barau said the Committee on Appropriation was monitoring funds released by the Federal Ministry of Finance and were quite satisfied that the concept of the January to December fiscal year budget was being achieved, bearing in mind that agencies of government also needed to organise themselves well enough to access the fund.
He noted: “I don’t think that’s correct that funds are not released as far as I know of capital releases to Ministries, Agencies and Department of Government. The Federal Ministry of Finance has done very well in the prompt release of funds for the execution of capital projects.
“They are doing very well, but the problem lies with some agencies of government that are yet to conclude procurement processes for execution of capital projects. As far as I know, as the Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriation, there is so much money in accounts of some MDAs.
“In respect to the implementation of 2021 by the various agencies that have appeared before the various Committees, I think there was no problem so far. There’s also no problem accessing funds already released and anything contrary is not correct.
I want to recall that the budget performance for last year was 100 hundred percent and this year, from what the Committee on Appropriation has discovered, they are doing well such that by December when the lifespan of 2021 would expire, they would have had 100% performance too.
“I was chairing this Committee between 1999 to 2003 and I know the difference between now and then, it hadn’t been so good like this.”
The lawmaker also received the 2022 procurement budget report from the Public Procurement Committee and promised to release the details of the report as soon as possible, adding that budget defence will not be extended for any reasons as the agencies of government have been sufficiently informed on the deadline.
