• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Reps give MDAs 20 days to remit unspent budget funds

The House of Representatives on Tuesday called on all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to ensure remittances of all unspent budget funds to the treasury on or before December 31, 2019.

The House also resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the amount of unspent constituency project funds not remitted in the last 10 years, identify the defaulting agencies and report back within eight weeks for further legislative action.

These decisions were made during plenary on Tuesday, sequel to adoption of a motion on ‘Need for Refund of Unspent Budget Funds’ sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of House, and five others.

Presenting the motion, the sponsors said the House noted the increasing need for budget discipline and accountability as well as releases of constituency and other project funds that are based on total sum provided in the annual national budget.

They said the House was “aware that most constituency projects, like other capital projects, are awarded at an amount lesser than the budget provisions by government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)”.

The House, they said, was “also aware that unspent capital funds of MDAs are returned or rather automatically mopped up by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the end of each financial year”.

The House was “further aware that excess funds accruing from the under-valued awards of constituency projects are not returned to the treasury” and was, therefore, “concerned that those funds are misapplied to other expenditure items contrary to extant public financial management laws and regulations”, the sponsors of the motion said.

JAMES KWEN, Abuja