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The House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals, on Friday, requested details of projects executed by the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development in the past year.
The committee made the demand during a meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mary Ogbe, who appeared before it to defend the 2024 budget implementation.
The committee, led by Jonathan Gaza, expressed displeasure with the inaccuracies in the Permanent Secretary’s presentation and called for a comprehensive report on projects executed by the Ministry to be submitted by Tuesday next week.
Gaza said, “We are expecting the budget, and we cannot appropriate unless we know the true status of the utilisation of what has been allocated to you in 2024.
“We were very specific when we sent you the documents we required. You must provide details of all the projects, including budget codes, budget items, appropriated amounts, contractors, amounts awarded, dates of award, project status, performance percentage, and lot numbers, among others.
“All these individual items must be included in detail in this document so that Nigerians can know how the money that has been appropriated has been utilised.
“Do not provide us with incomplete documents again. Every line must be adhered to, and you must include the advertisements made, the contractors, and all relevant information. Even if it was before the Federal Executive Council, kindly include it in the remarks section. Go and work on your documents again and make a proper presentation. Let’s have a comprehensive submission,” he said.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary stated that a total of N25.05bn had been appropriated as the expenditure outlay for the Ministry in the 2024 budget.
“This comprised N894.4m as overhead costs and N23.15bn as capital expenditure,” she said.
Regarding the amount appropriated to the Ministry, she stated that for overhead, the total appropriation was N895.44m, adding that as of October 31,qq 2024, the sum of N745.37m had been released. The balance as of October 31 stood at N149.07m. The percentage of releases from the appropriation for overhead was 83 per cent, she added.
“The Ministry achieved a 100 per cent utilisation, mainly of non-debt recurrent expenditure, and the percentage of capital expenditure utilised as of the end of October was 11 per cent. This is because the procurement process is still ongoing, and some are awaiting FEC approval. Under the bottom-up cash plan, works must be executed before payment,” she concluded.
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