The Senate Committee on the Environment has uncovered how the Ministry of Finance padded the budget of the Ministry of the Environment with N16 billion.
This was done under Erosion Control in the Ministry’s budget for 2022 and for servicing of a loan, which will start in 2023.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, made this known during the budget presentation to the Senate Committee on Appropriation.
Ekweremadu lamented that N6 billion was included in the Ministry’s budget last year.
He added that in the budget of the Ministry for 2022, N16 billion was included in the loan, which the servicing will start in 2023, and the beneficiaries of the loans were 21 States and not even the Federal Government.
Ekweremadu said: “Last year, as I said, there was N6 billion in the Environment budget for the servicing of a multilateral loan regarding to erosion control.
“Regrettably, about N1.5 billion of it was released to Environment and later the Ministry of Finance wrote, saying it was a mistake that that was supposed to be from the servicewide vote from which we service most of the loans.
“So we took it in good faith, but surprisingly, we now got another N16 billion for the same reason from the Ministry of Environment.
“And because there was a directive from the leadership of the National Assembly that we should not tamper with monies provided for multilateral loan.
“But we decided to find out what it is all about.
“Eventually we invited the Ministry who now said that by the time they got their envelope, the money they sent to Ministries to distribute to agencies, there was no such amount so by the time the money came to the National Assembly, there was this N16 billion for the servicing of the new map loan.
“We asked when this money is due for servicing, they said it has a 10-year moratorium.
“We can’t be providing for it until 2023.
“We also found out that about 21 states are benefiting from it and it is these states that will pay the loan and not the Federal Government.
“So it is either we wait until 2023 before making provisions for it or we ask the states to start making provisions for it if they have to pay now.
“Even if the Federal Government has to pay, it has to go through the servicewide votes not the respective budgets of the MDAs.
“It’s wrong.”