Reps Tackle Finance Minister Over Access To Budget Funds

The House of Representatives have tackled the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed over the difficulties by some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in accessing funds from the capital component of the 2020 budget extended till March 2021 since December 2020.

Speaking on Monday at an interactive session at the National Assembly, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said since it was not a usual thing to extend the lifespan of a budget, noting that the executive arm needed to show evidence of results achieved.

“Many of them (MDAs) have complained to our various committees of the difficulties being faced in accessing funds said to have been released by your ministry.

“We want to know the level of performance achieved so far whether it justifies the extension granted or not,” he said.

In her response, the minister said 30 per cent implementation of the capital component of the 2020 budget was achieved in January. She however, said since all the funds have been released and most of the agencies have accessed them, remarkable percentage implementation will be achieved before March ending.

When the Senate President asked her whether 100 per cent Implementation will be achieved or otherwise, she said a series of factors will determine that.

“Such factors include all the MDAs accessing the funds that had already been released about three weeks ago, procurement processes and capacity of agencies to utilize the funds within the time frame.”

The minister told the federal lawmakers that as at December 2020, 89 per cent of the capital component of the budget had been achieved from the N1.74 trillion released.