The Senate on Tuesday drilled the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for some hours for spending N19 million on international travel and N23 million on local travel before the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and subsequent lockdown.
Senator Danladi Sankara, All Progressives Congress, APC, Jigawa North West who led Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation was confused when the Minister at 2021 Budget defense disclosed the amount spent by the ministry as contained in its 2020 budget.
He was also questioned on N90 million expenditure out of the N96 million appropriated for local trips during the period.
During the budget defence, Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi, a representative from Imo East, had brought the issue to the lead in his statement.
Onyewuchi told the minister: “I am sure you will remember you did a lot of enlightenment program. I am sure you will remember that most of us were prevented from moving into other states. So, I don’t know how you also had the luxury of spending the entire amount that was appropriated on those travels. So, these are the information we need to get from you.”
Replying, Mohammed submitted: “You will notice that N43 million was budgeted, but less than 40 percent was spent precisely because of the COVID-19. And before then, remember that we had traveled to attend several international summits starting with the UNWTO conference and UNESCO in Spain and the United Kingdom.”
The minister revealed that they had also carried out advocacies in the UK during the period, adding that the expenditure covered from January to March.
He further clarified: “Before the lockdown, I think our last trip was to Addis Ababa where we accompanied the President to an African Union meeting that held around March.
“So whatever we spent was before the lockdown.”
Meanwhile, The minister was also tackled over the “zero percent performance” of a controversial constituency project that had been 100 percent funded by the Ministry of Finance for the 2020 fiscal year.
Tagged ERPG 10145116, and listed as “completion of NTA Gashua sub-station ongoing”, the project allegedly had its N250 million allocation fully released to the ministry.
Mohammed’s claim that the initiative was sponsored by a lawmaker as a constituency project in the 2020 budget, raised controversies in the house.
The senators, who disagreed, condemned the slow pace of work.
The Chairman of the committee, Sankara, maintained that the Lai Mohammed had a lot of explanation to make.
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