The House of Representatives Committee on National Population on Wednesday rejected the 2023 budget proposal of the National Population Commission (NPC) over several discrepancies in the 2023 budget proposal it presented.

The committee chaired by Hon Mohammed Lawan also queried the Management of the Commission for spending N1.2 billion for a one-day stakeholders summit on the 2023 Population and Housing Census.

The committee which in addition demanded details of the mock trial of the census directed it to provide the expenditure pattern of the N5.2 billion spent on the mock census detailing it state by state.

The committee gave the directives when the management of NPC led by a National Commissioner, Mr Bala Banye, appeared before it for the budget defence of the commission.

This followed the adoption of a motion moved by a member of the committee, Hon Gboluga Ikengbogu that the budget should be suspended due to several infractions discovered.

He said: “The 2022 budget performance cannot be accepted now. The commission must go back and provide more details. We cannot sit down here and speculate over numbers and taxpayers money. I move that this meeting must be postponed and adjourned for them to tidy up their papers and figures so we spend less time when they come back. I so moved.”

A member of the Committee, Hon Chudy Momah, had demanded details of how the sum of N1.2bn was expended on the one-day summit which was held at the Presidential Villa in August this year.

Director of Census, Arinola Olanikpekun, who was mandated to respond to the question however said the sum was N1.9 billion.

She explained that the money was not just for the event that was held at the villa but also for similar stakeholder meetings that were held in the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja

She said that the sum of N129,520,000 was spent for the Villa event, while the rest was for the states.

The Director of Finance, Benjamin Fagbemi, of the agency, who spoke on oath agreed with Olanikpekun on the sum spent on hosting the event at the Villa.

He however said that N1.2 billion was spent on the other meetings that were held across the country.

However, a member of the committee, Hon Momah noted that the said N1.2 billion was not captured in the document submitted to the committee by the commission on its expenditure.

Amending the motion, Momah added: “In addition to the detailed expenditure pattern that we are asking for, I move that the commission furnishes this committee with a separate document that explains the expenditure pattern of that presidential summit carried out at the Villa and the ones held at the 36 states and how much was expended at each level, at state, zonal, local. At every level.

“And also for the mock trial of the census, they should also provide the expenditure pattern of the N5.2 billion spent on the mock census, detailing it state by state. So we can know the details and how much was expended at the state level.”

After the adoption of the motion, the commision was directed to come back next week Wednesday with more details.

In the same vein, the committee also rejected the 2023 budget proposal of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for excluding its 2022 personnel budget expenditure from the documents it submitted.

Director General of NIMC, Engr Aliyu Aziz, who appeared before the Committee had said the personnel budget in 2022 was N5.8 billion.

This was as NIMC requested N13 billion for personnel in the proposal it submitted.

The committee directed the DG to come back next week Tuesday with detailed documentation of the commission’s budget performance.

According to the committee, “In view of the nondisclosure of the personnel budget of 2022 which is allegedly put at N5.8 with over 3,782 personnel, and also 2023 which I am seeing here that has over 13 billion, which is a long gap, Mr Chairman, I hereby move that NIMC should leave and go and prepare a very exhaustible document that would detail the personnel budget of 2022, showing the nominal roll to see if the said personnel reflect Federal Character Principle.” (Nigerian Tribune)

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