News
Senate Probes NACA Budgeting System
The Nigeria Senate has commenced a probe into the budgeting system of the National Agency for the Control of Aids,NACA
The exercise will look into the 2021 and 2022 budgeting system deployed NACA in preparing its annual budget.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Primary Health Care and Communicable Diseases, Senator Ishaku Abbo, disclosed this on Tuesday when the Director-General of NACA, Gambo Aliyu appeared before the committee for 2023 budget defence.
Frowning at the discrepancies in the budgeting system of the agency, Abbo said that putting recurrent items under capital budget was a misnomer.
He said: “The fact that things have gone wrong for 100 years doesn’t make it to be right. We must change how things are done.
“How can a board meeting be captured as a capital project.
“This is not just a discrepancy it is a misnomer. We have to correct this misnomer.
“The committee will look at it and expunge it. Your capital doesn’t sound capital enough. We understand the importance of your agency,.”
He, however, set up a three-man ad hoc committee to look into the budgeting process of NACA.
“I’m setting up a three-man ad hoc committee to look at the budgeting processes of NACA and liaise with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Director-General Budget Office.
“This is so that they will come up with workable and more acceptable way of doing budget for NACA,” the chairman stressed.
Abbo said that the ad hoc committee is to be chaired by Senator Ibrahim Danbaba (PDP Sokoto).
He equally queried the level with which grants and aids received by government agencies were not accounted for.
“Grants and aids are currently been received by different government agencies on behalf of Nigerians. This is running into billions of naira.
“Nobody knows what they are doing with it. These agencies are a creation of the law. We must know what they are doing with the loans and grants. They must account for them,” Abbo said.
He, however, stepped down consideration of the 2023 budget of NACA.
Efforts by journalists to speak with the NACA boss was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, after a closed-door session with Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Abbo said that the Senate would ensure adequate budgetary provision for the centre to get a befitting Headquarters.
“We had discussed during the closed-door session, the need for NCDC to get a convenient place for their office.
“Nigeria must begin to develop health institutions and systems so that we can be prepared for any emergency or pandemic,” he said.
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THE Federal Government has approved free internet services worth N24.2 billion naira at 20 selected airports, 43 universities and six markets across the country.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Pantami, disclosed this after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday
Pantami said that the airports were selected from the six geo-political zones.
“Certain intervention projects are going to be implemented by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Nigerian Communications Commission of providing Internet in 20 selected airports in Nigeria and higher institutions of learning and also some markets to support micro small and medium enterprises.
“In each geopolitical zone, you have around three airports. In the South-West, we have Lagos and Ondo. For the South-East, we have Anambra and Enugu.
“For the South-South, we have Port Harcourt and Akwa Ibom. For the North-Central we have Abuja and Ilorin. In the North-West, we have Kano, Sokoto and Kebbi. For the North-East we have Yola, Maiduguri and Gombe.”
The minister said the markets and 43 institutions which include universities and polytechnics were also drawn from the six geopolitical zones, adding that it will ease e-learning in schools and also enhance the transition to a cashless economy.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday approved the appointment of six new permanent secretaries in the Federal Civil Service
The appointments followed after a recent conducted selection process.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF),Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, made this known in a statement by Mohammed Ahmed, Director of Communications of the Office of the HOCSF,
The appointees and their states of origin are Esuabana Asanye (Cross River), Mahmud Kambari (Borno), Richard Pheelangwah (Taraba), Lamuwa Ibrahim (Gombe), Yakubu Kofar-Mata (Kano) and Oloruntola Michael (Ogun).
The Department of State Security Service has said that the plot to Instal interim government was real
DSS noted that the plot was “by some key players” to install an interim government and stop Bola Ahmed Tinubu from being inaugurated as president.
A statement on Wednesday, by Peter Afunanya, the public relations officer of the secret police, said: “The Department of State Services (DSS) has identified some key players in the plot for an Interim Government in Nigeria.
“The Service considers the plot, being pursued by these entrenched interests, as not only an aberration but a mischievous way to set aside the constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis.
“The illegality is totally unacceptable in a democracy and to the peace loving Nigerians. This is even more so that the machination is taking place after the peaceful conduct of the elections in most parts of the country.”
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