The House of Representatives has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to hasten the release of the outstanding 2012 budget funds to the various ministries and agencies.
While performing their oversight function, a delegation of the House which visited Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun and Lagos states on Saturday said the call had become imperative for the agencies and the ministries to complete their outstanding projects.
A member of the team and representative of Ndokwa East/Ndokwa, Delta State, Mr. Nicholas Ossai, urged Jonathan to expedite action on the release of the funds.
He said, "We want to be sure that the budget of 2012 is being implemented as appropriated. We aim at exposing corruption by listening to the yearnings of Nigerians and to look at what has been appropriated for in the 2012 budget. We have visited Owo, Ado Ekiti, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ife and now in Lagos to perform our oversight functions and bring succour to the people of the country.
"We call on President Jonathan to release more money to various agencies to make sure that the 2012 budget is implemented as expected. A situation where we make budget yearly without any meaningful impact on the people should be avoided.
"Funds should be released to various ministries and agencies to make them function as appropriate. Every project has its own period of completion but the availability of fund matters a lot. All ministries and agencies must implement their 2012 budget, before we look into that of 2013."
Also, Dr. Kigbu Haruna, representing Lafia/Obi, Nasarawa State, called for increased funding for research development in the country.
He decried the delay in the release of fund, saying the action impacted negatively on the rate of development of government agencies.
Haruna, who is the chairman, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Committee, said, "We will continue to improve annually. This year's budget is almost the same with that of last year. The problem with it is that the money is not good enough and that is why government must step up the release of more funds so that some of these projects that are domiciled in the appropriation act will be executed.
"Nigeria needs to commit more money to research efforts. NEMA got only N11m for research in the area of malaria, HIV/AIDS and genetic disorder. This is not sufficient. Eight-five million naira was appropriated and the government released N35m which is less than 50 per cent. So, in the fourth quarter, we hope that President Jonathan will release money to improve research in the country."
by Sodiq Oyeleke Monday, October 8, 2012
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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