The Senate Committee on Finance has warned that
ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the federal government that fail
to provide explanation on their spendings for the 2024 budget will not get
funds approved for them in the 2025 budget.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sani Musa, said this
during an investigative hearing on the remittance of revenue generating
agencies for the year held on Monday at the National Assembly.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin
Madein, presented a summary of the federal government’s revenue from January to
September, during the hearing.
During the hearing, Mr Musa said the committee will
invite all heads of MDAs for questioning to give a breakdown of their spendings
for the year as contained in the approved budget.
The Niger East senator said all the ministries and
government agencies must appear before the committee or risk not getting funds
allocated to them in the 2025 budget.
“This performance index exercise on the various MDAs
is preparatory to the 2025 budget.
“Any agency that failed to appear before this
committee upon invitation risks zero allocation in the 2025 budget because
records of how appropriations made for 2024 are expended must be provided with
facts and figures,” he said.
Criticism for centralised payment system
The committee members also criticised the federal
government’s payment system which requires over 700 MDAs to process payments
through a single office.
They argued that the payment system has caused
inefficiency,, delayed projects and diminished public trust, especially in
constituencies expecting the execution of critical infrastructure projects.
In her response, Ms Madein explained that the
centralised payment system was introduced to curb inefficiency and prevent
unutilised funds from being rolled over annually.
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