Home Contact Us Tip Us: [email protected]
Hot Stories
Recent Stories
Nigeria Health Minister Disowns Ministry's Budget, Says 'Rats' Have Doctored Proposal
Posted by George on Tue 09th Feb, 2016 - tori.ngThe Health Ministry has offered a disclaimer on some of the provisions of the controversial 2016 appropriation bill of Buhari.
Isaac Adewole
In what is the latest in the spate of controversies dogging President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2016 budget, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health has disowned the budget proposal submitted on its behalf by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
Health Minister, Isaac Adewole, who addressed the Senate Committee on Health during its budget defence session on Monday, said the proposal drawn up by the ministry and submitted to the budget office had been doctored and that “foreign” appropriations, different from what was submitted, had been sneaked in.
“We have to look into the details of the budget and re-submit it to the committee,” he said. “This was not what we submitted. We’ll submit another one. We don’t want anything foreign to creep into that budget. What we submitted is not there.”
Mr. Adewole’s revelation is the latest of controversies and embarrassing disclosures trailing the 2016 budget proposed by President Buhari and currently being considered by the National Assembly.
Last week, the Senate had discovered a sum of N10 billion “questionably smuggled” into the budget of the Ministry of Education for an allegedly questionable subhead. A senior Presidency official also told PREMIUM TIMES that a “budget mafia” was responsible for the embarrassing allocations in the budget.
Stating further, Mr. Adewole lamented that the proposed appropriations in the budget before the National Assembly ran parallel with the priorities of the health sector as contained in the “original budget.”
While some important agencies in the health sector had been excluded, votes proposed by the ministry had been redistributed, he said.
“In the revised budget as re-submitted, N15.7 billion for capital allocation has been moved to other areas. Some allocations made are not in keeping with our priorities.
“There is nothing allocated to public health and family health,” Adewole.
While discarding the budget, he therefore asked the committee not to work with the budget before it but wait for another one to be re-submitted.
Health Minister, Isaac Adewole, who addressed the Senate Committee on Health during its budget defence session on Monday, said the proposal drawn up by the ministry and submitted to the budget office had been doctored and that “foreign” appropriations, different from what was submitted, had been sneaked in.
“We have to look into the details of the budget and re-submit it to the committee,” he said. “This was not what we submitted. We’ll submit another one. We don’t want anything foreign to creep into that budget. What we submitted is not there.”
Mr. Adewole’s revelation is the latest of controversies and embarrassing disclosures trailing the 2016 budget proposed by President Buhari and currently being considered by the National Assembly.
Last week, the Senate had discovered a sum of N10 billion “questionably smuggled” into the budget of the Ministry of Education for an allegedly questionable subhead. A senior Presidency official also told PREMIUM TIMES that a “budget mafia” was responsible for the embarrassing allocations in the budget.
Stating further, Mr. Adewole lamented that the proposed appropriations in the budget before the National Assembly ran parallel with the priorities of the health sector as contained in the “original budget.”
While some important agencies in the health sector had been excluded, votes proposed by the ministry had been redistributed, he said.
“In the revised budget as re-submitted, N15.7 billion for capital allocation has been moved to other areas. Some allocations made are not in keeping with our priorities.
“There is nothing allocated to public health and family health,” Adewole.
While discarding the budget, he therefore asked the committee not to work with the budget before it but wait for another one to be re-submitted.
Top Stories
Stories from this Category
Recent Stories
