The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, on Wednesday, uncovered N180 million double allocation to Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET, in the 2016 budget The committee also queried the agency for earning dollars and remitting in naira to the Federal Government.
It was discovered during budget defence that the agency made double capital allocations to the tune of N180 million.
The committee said while the agency was generating revenues in dollars, it was remitting to government in naira, without actually disclosing how much of the dollar it earned and at what exchange rate it remitted to government.
A member of the committee, Magaji Dau-Aliyu, had raised the question as to why the agency would propose a capital allocation of N85 million in Federal Government budget and then N95 million in Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, under the same sub-head in the 2016 budget.
Responding on behalf of the agency, Director of Finance and Admin, Rueben Jiya said: “If we make allocation for capital in Federal Government budget and it doesn’t come, the double provision in IGR would have taken care of it without letting it suffer.”
Asked what happens when the Federal Government approves and releases the sum allocated, he said there would be reconciliation. However, how such reconciliation is done and what happens to the surplus, the agency couldn’t explain.
The committee therefore insisted that the projects must be fully situated, costed and sent back with appropriate figures assigned to the Federal Government budget with the remainder taken to IGR for funding, otherwise, the proposal would be rejected.
Chairman of the Committee, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, told the agency that the committee would not entertain a situation where projects initiated and started by the past administration would be discontinued and abandoned.
She also queried the agency’s decision to make provision for new projects in 2016 when there were still ongoing and uncompleted projects needing attention.
She said the committee desired a functional and efficient aviation sector that would be the envy of all around the world.
As to what denomination the agency was paid its IGR, Director General, Dr. Anthony Anofurum, said some part of the payment were made in naira while others were in dollars. Also asked why all the submissions made were in naira, Jiya said it was converted at the official rate.
When the lawmakers further asked how much, he said: “There are different official exchange rates.”
This made the committee to demand the rate at which the dollars were exchanged and what the difference was, given insinuations that agencies hid their dollar revenues from government.
Consequently, the agency asked for time to do the reconciliation, as the director general and his team were directed to effect the necessary corrections and return the document by Friday. – National Mirror.
