Produce Evidence of N1.4bn IGR Payment, Reps Tell Danbazzau

The House of Representatives Committee on Interior Wednesday demanded the Ministry of Interior to produce the evidence of remittances of internally generated revenue of more than N1.4 billion into the federation account that was not included in the 2017 budget performance report or forget about its overhead expenditure for 2018.
The committee in session also kicked against repeated duplication of line items such as computers and other accessories in the 2018 Budget of the Federal Ministry of Interior.
The lawmakers also demanded that all evidences of remittances of the over N1billion IGR be forwarded to them for verification.
The committee during the budget defence exercise of the Ministry and agencies under it, urged the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazzau, retd, to ensure that line items were properly aligned with current needs of the Ministry and not repeated for pecuniary reasons.
Chairman of the committee, Jagaba Adams Jagaba, APC, Kaduna, asked the minister to give reasons the Ministry’s IGR was not reflected in the 2017 budget performance report.
Disputing an assertion that the Ministry’s only source of revenue was citizenship registration for conferment, Jagaba told the Director Finance and Administration who stood in for the Permanent Secretary that he had all the Memorandum of Understanding entered into between the Ministry and other agencies under it and would not, therefore, be misled into believing what the Ministry was saying.
On the issue of duplicated line items, the Ministry had presented a line item of computers, office stationeries, newspapers and printing of security and non-security documents in their budget for the committee’s approval.
But the lawmakers during the exercise, picked holes in the presentation with regards to computers and stationeries, noting that it had a recurring decimal in the budget when compared to what the Ministry had brought in previous years.
Defending the scenario, the Minister, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau, retd, said the ministry had close to N400m outstanding liabilities on overhead cost in its previous budgets.
He informed the lawmakers that it got to a point that the Ministry’s supplier of gasoline refused to supply it due to huge debts he was owed.
“As we speak, we have received our overhead expenditure since July and I gave a directive that we should gradually clear our debts as releases are made to us,” he said.
On the 2018 budget, the Ministry had presented for approval N360,890,319 as overhead cost, including those of its agencies.
The sum of N1.64 billion is, however, earmarked for capital expenditure in the 2018 fiscal year.
A breakdown of the proposal shows that  N29.5 million is set aside for local travels, N18.8 million for international travels, N18.8 million for office stationeries and N2.8 million for printing of non-security documents.
Similarly, N16 million is to be used for clearing of weed and fumigation, another N16 million is for legal services, N5.2 million for publicity and advertisements while N4.5 million is for meals.
Committee Chairman, Jagaba, however, queried the rationale behind the procurement of computers by the Ministry which he said, had become an annual ritual.
He, alongside his colleagues, therefore, demanded for the receipts of purchase of computers appropriated for by the committee in 2017.
He told officials of the Ministry that the committee was invoking its veto powers under the law by denying approval for such purchases in 2017.