The Senate on Tuesday expressed displeasure with Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance, for allegedly not approving capital votes for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government.
Analysing budget proposals of the various ministries, departments and agencies of government for the 2015 fiscal year and their budget performances for 2014, the upper chamber was worried over the non-funding of capital projects. This comes as the Senate has resolved to pass the 2015 budget before the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections.
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The senators, who met behind closed doors for about two hours have, however, resolved to carry out their necessary legislative duties this year to ensure that the right steps are taken against any official of government who deliberately refuses to release funds to execute projects already approved for execution this year.
Speaking on the outcome of the closed-door session, a senator who did not want his name mentioned in print, told our correspondent that all his colleagues were not happy over budget execution. His words: “All of us are not happy that most of the MDAs could not execute any reasonable capital projects this year because the little money released to them by the finance minister was not enough to pay the contractors who had executed projects for them in the past”.
