SGF opposes ecological fund regulation bill

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, has opposed a bill seeking a regulatory framework for the Ecological Fund programme, undergoing legislative processing in the House of Representatives.


“The Ecological Fund as presently constituted is not subject to the process of appropriation by the National Assembly.

This gives the president the much needed flexibility to effectively and timorously respond to ecological emergencies the fund is created to address”, the SGF told the House of Representatives Committee on Ecological Fund during a public hearing on the bill on Wednesday.


Represented by the director in charge of Pollution Control, Igwe Clinton, the SGF insisted passing it into law would impede the powers of the president to use the fund for emergencies, if he has to revert to the National Assembly for approvals.

“It is not always feasible to predict emergencies, hence the inability to appropriate or budget for such disasters or ecological emergencies,” he said.


He also stated that staff deployed to the Ecological Fund Office don’t draw salaries from the fund, as they were mainstream civil servants, who draw their emoluments from the federal coffers.

He said it was “advisable to sustain less emphasis on recruitment of officers and payment of board members that could be a drain whittling down the impact of the fund on ecological interventions, by increasing government’s overhead cost.”

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