The budget defence that lasted for five hours on Monday turned sour when the Minister could not explain the National Assembly’s approval of the N1.7 billion distributed to exporters through his office, which was in his 2018 budget performance.
Immediately he addressed the panel headed by Senator Mohammed Sabo, the Chairman of the panel in his reaction explained: “my understanding of capital expenditures is you get cash through budgetary provision before you expend.
“I don’t think it is right for you to distribute cash to exporters without approval”, the lawmaker insisted.
The Minister got lost when asked to explain details on who got the money, and having sought intervention of the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, who sat beside him, he sought the leave of the Committee to produce details at a later date.
Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, a member of the Committee accused the executive of aiding the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment in perpetuating illegality by approving promissory notes to access funds from the treasury.
“The Honourable Minister, we saw promissory notes from the Presidency so that when we see issues like this, we, raise concerns. ”
“We are aware of how huge sum of money was approved for your ministry without passing through the National Assembly.”
The lawmaker added that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) have accessed export expansion grant to the tune of N300 billion without the National Assembly’s approval.
He, however, did not deny in his response to some issues raised by the lawmakers.
