Senate Angry with Finance Minister over Delay in Releasing N199bn Anti-Terror Fund
Finance Minister
The Senate Thursday summoned the Finance Minister, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, to appear before it on Tuesday next week over the N199bn anti-terror spending .
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, had expressed anger that though the Minister was invited to appear before the Committee on Thursday, she failed to do so and sent the Permanent Secretary to represent her.
Ndume said the Minister was needed to explain the disbursement of the funds approved for anti-terror purposes.
He said, “Honestly, we are not happy that the Minister of Finance is not here today despite the fact that she was duly invited and she knew the importance of the issue we invited her to discuss with us.
“We were blaming the military but the soldiers are claiming that they have no equipment, arms and ammunition to work with because there was no money to buy them.
“We have invited the minister now to explain why her ministry was not funding the operations of the Army and she is not here. This is not acceptable.”
However, the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, in the Finance Ministry, Aliyu Shinkafi, had given a breakdown on the disbursement of the funds.
According to Ndume, the Chief of Defence Staff had written to complain that a shortfall of N50bn was yet to be released.
Shinkafi told the Committee that in 2019, the sum of N75bn which was appropriated was released.
He also said that in 2020, the sum of N75bn was appropriated and N74.99bn released.
On the current year, he said, “N100bn was appropriated and we have released N19.4bn for the first quarter.
“Just yesterday, we released N19.95bn for the second quarter”.
The Senate Committee also invited the Director General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze and the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru to appear before it on Tuesday next with.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, had expressed anger that though the Minister was invited to appear before the Committee on Thursday, she failed to do so and sent the Permanent Secretary to represent her.
Ndume said the Minister was needed to explain the disbursement of the funds approved for anti-terror purposes.
He said, “Honestly, we are not happy that the Minister of Finance is not here today despite the fact that she was duly invited and she knew the importance of the issue we invited her to discuss with us.
“We were blaming the military but the soldiers are claiming that they have no equipment, arms and ammunition to work with because there was no money to buy them.
“We have invited the minister now to explain why her ministry was not funding the operations of the Army and she is not here. This is not acceptable.”
However, the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, in the Finance Ministry, Aliyu Shinkafi, had given a breakdown on the disbursement of the funds.
According to Ndume, the Chief of Defence Staff had written to complain that a shortfall of N50bn was yet to be released.
Shinkafi told the Committee that in 2019, the sum of N75bn which was appropriated was released.
He also said that in 2020, the sum of N75bn was appropriated and N74.99bn released.
On the current year, he said, “N100bn was appropriated and we have released N19.4bn for the first quarter.
“Just yesterday, we released N19.95bn for the second quarter”.
The Senate Committee also invited the Director General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze and the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru to appear before it on Tuesday next with.
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