The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, clears the air on allegations of budget padding by some ministries., departments and agencies.
The minister, who said the federal government has taken steps to increase transparency in the budgeting process, stated that the funds in question were only incorrectly recorded in the budget estimates submitted to the National Assembly.
Recall that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management has alleged that N206,242,395,000 found its way into its budget without its knowledge.
But, the Special Adviser to the minister on Media and Communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, in a statement made available stated that a wrong code was selected from the drop-down menu which resulted in a wrong description of the project.
“The project was correctly described in the submission from the International Economic Relations Department (IERD) for the 2023 budget. But, unfortunately, a wrong code was selected from the drop-down menu which resulted in a wrong description of the project which resulted in it being captured as ‘Purchase of Security Equipment’ in the Government Integrated Financial Management Information (GIFMIS) Budget Preparation System (BPS).
The statement further stated that the proposed 2023 budget for each ministry was circulated for review and feedback before the Federal Executive Council (FEC) reviewed it and was submitted to the National Assembly by President Buhari.
