Agency Report
The House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals has demanded details of all projects embarked upon by the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development in the past years.
The committee made the demand when the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Mary Ogbe, appeared before it to defend the 2024 budget in Abuja on Friday.
Rep. Jonathan Gaza, the chairman of the committee, expressed displeasure with the inconsistencies in the presentation of the Permanent Secretary.
The committee resolved that all documents pertaining to all jobs carried out by the ministry should be made available before Nov. 26.
Gaza queried the Ministry for not capturing most of the projects it embarked on in the presentation it made.
“We are expecting the budget, and we cannot appropriate it if we do not know the true status of the utilisation of what has been given to you in 2024.
“We were quite detailed when we sent you the documents we required. You must provide details of all the projects, budget codes, and budget items.
Others include the appropriated amount, contractors, amount awarded, date of award, the status of the projects, the percentage with regards to performance, and the lot numbers, among others.
According to him, all these individual items must be captured in detail in this document so that Nigerians would know how the money that has been appropriated has been utilised.
He said that there were a number of projects that were not captured in the presentation to the committee, adding that there was no explanation whatsoever.
“Don’t give us any half-baked documents again. Every line must be adhered to. And give us the advertisement that was done, the code, the contractors, and everything.
“Even if it is before the Federal Executive Council, put it in the remarks and work on your documents and make a proper presentation; let’s have a comprehensive submission,” he said.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary said that a total of N25.05 billion was appropriated as an expenditure outlay for the ministry in the 2024 budget.
“This comprised N894.4 million as overhead cost and N23.15 billion as capital expenditure. The personnel cost of the ministry was captured.
He said that it was still in the Ministry of Steel Development for 2024 because the personnel separation had not been fully executed.
“On appropriation released to the Ministry, she said for overhead, the total appropriation was N895. 44 million as of Oct. 31, 2024
She added that N367.77 million had been released, while balances as of Oct. 31 were N149.07 million.
She said that the percentage of releases of the appropriation for the overhead was 83 percent, adding that the expenditure on release was the same amount that had been released.
According to her, there is a hundred percent performance.
“For capital appropriation, it is N23.15 billion, out of which N2.72 billion has been released.
She added that 11 percent had been released, and percentage performance was 100 percent.
“The ministry achieved 100 percent utilisation, mainly of non-debt recurrent expenditure, and the percentage utilisation in capital as of the end of October is 11 percent.
“This, according to her, is because the procurement process is still ongoing and some are awaiting Federal Executive Council approval,’’ she said
She explained that with the bottom-up cash plan, work must be executed before payment.