The House of Representatives’ committee on telecommunication yesterday rejected the 2017 budget records of the Ministry of Communications.
Members of the panel headed by Saheed Akinade-Fijabi (APC, Oyo) frowned at the discrepancies uncovered in documents presented.
They lamented that the ministry repeated the sum of about N200million in the 2018 budget proposal as judgement debt when the same amount was budgeted for last year.
The lawmakers said based on the records from the ministry, about N192m was paid out of the amount but that the same thing was proposed again.
The committee turned down the 2018 budget defence and asked the Minister, Adebayo Shittu, to clean up the documents and return at a later date.
Fijabi told the minister that: “It appears you’re not prepared for this budget defence.
“This is the third attempt at our budget defence, and it has always happened the same way.
“There is no reason to continue this defence. We’ll give you few more days to go an put things in order.
“Until we get through with the 2017 budget details, we will not touch the 2018 proposal”, Daily Trust quoted him as saying.
Responding, Shittu said the bureaucrats in the ministry ought to have done due diligence in preparing the documents.
He promised to ensure that the documents were properly checked before his next appearance.
It is unclear whether Fijabi and Shittu are not in good terms.
Both men are from Oyo State and chieftains of the APC.
