TheCable

Sadiya Farouq, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, says the N206 billion inserted in her ministry’s 2023 budget proposal is for the purchase of military equipment.

Farouq said this on Thursday when she appeared before the senate committee on special duties.

The minister clarified that she did not accuse the finance ministry of ‘budget padding’ but instead sought clarification. 

“I want to state that the last time we were here and this issue was raised, we never mentioned budget padding, but we need to clarify with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the issue of the N206bn that was raised,” she said. 

“We have written to them but we are still waiting for a formal response from the ministry.

“I will ask that we wait until we get a formal response from the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the said amount under contention.

“I wish they were here today so that we can listen to them. 

“On the N206 billion, when we saw it, we didn’t understand what it was meant for because the explanation wasn’t clear.”

She noted that the insertion of “purchase of military equipment” in the ministry’s budget meant that something was wrong. 

“If you put N206 billion in Humanitarian Affairs Ministry’s budget and the narration is the purchase of military equipment, definitely something is wrong,” she said. 

“That’s why I said I was not going to say anything about it until we got clarification from the ministry of finance.

“If we had requested N206 billion for a different project and then in the Appropriation Bill, it was reading something else, we would not own it.”

When the lawmakers further asked whether or not she requested the N206 billion for a project but it came with another narration, she said: “It is not exactly that way. That’s why we need that clarity from the finance ministry.”

In the past week, there has been a back-and-forth over the ‘N206 billion’ allocation in the budget proposal which is funded by the World Bank and domiciled in the humanitarian ministry.

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, had dismissed allegations of budget padding, saying it was an oversight. 

She had said the N206 billion captured in the ministry’s 2023 budget proposal was wrongly coded by the Budget Office.