Budget: NAPIMS spent $9m on staff transfer, $2m on vehicles maintenance

 

At a time the nation is battling to exit economic recession, the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) has submitted that the agency spent a whopping $9million on staff transfer in its 2016 budgetary allocation.

The agency – a subsidiary of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – also disclosed that it spent $2million for maintenance of vehicles out of its 2016 total budgetary allocation of $171million.

General Manager of the petroleum agency, Catherine Iheme disclosed this at 2017 budget defence on Tuesday.

According to her, out of the $171million 2016 budget of the agency, $17.7m was for capital expenditure and $154million for operating expenditure while $9million was cost of staff transfer and $2million for vehicle maintenance.

When taken up by the committee members to explain what she meant by staff transfer, she said: “We are part of the NNPC group and sometimes you have staff transferred in and out of one subsidiary to the other with attendant payment of required allowances“.

The committee members who further took her up on the $2million spent on vehicle maintenance, ordered her to make available to them, details of the agency’s spending of the entire $171million 2016 budget latest by Wednesday as against the lump up figures presented to the panel.

“This submission on your spending of the 2016 budgetary provisions to us, is outrageous and we are not comfortable at all. Had it been I have the power, I would taken all of you to the bar beach and do the needful”,  committee chairman, Tayo Alasoadura declared