Unapproved N36bn expenditure: Reps flay NIMASA, FAAN

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has expressed dismay at Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)  for spending a whopping N36 billion without getting approval from the National Assembly.
As an expression of displeasure toward MIMASA and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) over the manner they spent their revenue, the Reps asked them to leave.

Chairman of the committee, Hon. Abdulmumuni Jubril, before sending them away, wondered why the MIMASA could spend up to N36 billion without getting approval from the National Assembly.
Jubril also expressed disapproval to the non-auditing of the account of NIMASA since 2008 to date.
He, therefore, gave them the order to get their accounts audited.

He expressed concern over the continued absence of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) just as he rejected the representatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who appeared before the committee.
According to him, “no matter what is happening in CBN, it does not stop the Acting governor of CBN from appearing before the House.”

At the meeting, it was also discovered that lack of synergy between the budget office, the ministries and agencies could adversely affect the implementation of the 2014 budget.
The chairman raised an eyebrow over the implication of lack of harmony between the budget office and the MDAs following submissions by NIMASA and FAAN, both of which stated that their organisations did not interface with the budget office which submitted revenue projections for them to the committee.

According to him, “the 2014 may suffer poor implementation and is therefore not realistic. Going by what we have just heard, it shows that the budget may only accumulate debts.”
“The budget office submitted a document for revenue projections for the 2014 budget, but here are some of the agencies saying no. For instance, the budget office projected the revenue of FAAN as N17.2 billion, but FAAN is saying they projected N56 billion with a view to remitting N500 million to government coffers during the fiscal year.”