206bn Budget Padding: Minister Finally Reveals the Truth

• The minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, has denied allegations of budget padding
• Recall that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management alleged that N206,242,395,000 found its way into its budget without its knowledge
• According to the minister, the funds in question were only wrongly captured in the budget estimates submitted to the National Assembly

Finally, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, has reacted to the allegations of budget padding by some ministries, departments and agencies.

The minister, who refuted the allegations, disclosed that the funds in question were only wrongly captured in the budget estimates submitted to the National Assembly, Daily Trust reports.

Punch Newspaper reports that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management made a startling revelation. The ministry alleged that N206,242,395,000 found its way into its budget without its knowledge.

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A statement by the special adviser to the minister on media and communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, read in part:

“The project so referred to is domiciled in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development headquarters. The World Bank is the funding source for the National Social Safety Net-Scale Up project to the tune of $473,500,000 which is equivalent to N206,242,395,000, using the N435.57/USD exchange rate.

“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)."

Outrage over N2.4 million monthly salary per junior staff at PenCom

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Finance is investigating the National Pension Commission (PenCom) salary structure and is demanding thorough scrutiny.

In an interactive session on Thursday, September 15, 2022, the panel discovered that the commission had budgeted N12.02 billion for staff salaries and N2.5 billion for other staff costs for this year.

The lawmakers raised queries after the Director-General of PenCom, Aisha Dahiru-Umar, said the Commission has about 500 staff members but needed to pay them a competitive salary, so they don’t become compromised.

Source: Legit.ng