*Demands approval documents on appropriations releases, revenue remittances, international travels etc.
Jonas Ezieke, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has tackled the Minister of Finance Mr Wale Edun, the Chairman Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission RMFAC Dr.Mohammed Bello Shehu and the Managing Director Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company NBET Mr Johnson Akinawo for low and non-effective implementation of the released funds in their 2025 budgets.
The House Committee therefore has requested that the ministry and agencies provide all the requested documents detailing the appropriations, releases, utilization and all expenditures of their previous years budget before requesting their 2026 budget approval.
Chairman of the House Committee Hon Dr.James Faleke made demand on Thursday during the budget defense session of the House Committee with the ministries and agencies of the federal government under the Commitee’s jurisdiction.
He said that the Ministry of Finance and all other relevant agencies are requested to submit to the Committee their budget performance, inflows and outflows from their previous budgets as well as releases and utilization of funds from their operations in the previous fiscal year.
The lawmaker also asked the Minister and other heads of agencies to itemize their sources of revenue and their remittances to the consolidated revenue fund of the federation.
In his presentation before the House Committee,the Minister of Finance Mr Wale Edun said that Ministry has earmarked a total of N14,325,329,906.94 for personnel cost, overhead and capital budgets for the 2026 fiscal year.
He further revealed that other components of the budget estimate include allowances, travels and transport, materials and supplies, maintenance services, training and consulting, professional services, fuel and lubricants, financial services and miscellaneous.
The House Committee chairman and some members nonetheless picked holes with the slow and non- effective implemanetation of the line items of the previous years budget.
A member of the House Committee Hon.Afolabi had pointed out that there is no utilization and there is no performance for N48 billion in the last budget.
The House Committee also grilled the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission RMFAC Dr.Muhammed Bello Shehu on the agency’s 2025 budget and demanded documents on revenue remittances to the federal government coffers.
The RMFAC boss however told the House Committee that there is appropriation, inflows and percentage performance for the agency previous budgets.
He assured the Committee that a new revenue allocation is underway to address the yearning of political office holders for improvement in their renumarations.
Also in his presentation before the House Committee the Managing Director Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company NBET Mr Johnson Akinawo told the House Committee chairman and members that a total of N885.5 billion was approved for the company in the last budget out of which N60 million was released.
The House Committee chairman and some other lawmakers however queried the huge expenditure on international travels and other line items of the company’s budget.
The House Committee Chairman Hon.Faleke in his ruling demanded that all the invited government ministries and agencies appearing for the 3-day budget defense should submit all requested documents on their appropriations,releases and expenditures in the 2025 budgets.
