A House of Representatives committee says it will not
approve the 2023 budget of the ministry of foreign affairs until it complies
with the provisions of the 2022 Appropriation Act.
Yusuf Yakub, chairman of the committee on foreign affairs,
said this on Wednesday when Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, and
his team, appeared before the committee to defend the ministry’s 2023 budget
proposal.
The committee accused Onyeama of directing embassies to
ignore sections 7 and 10 of the 2022 Appropriation Act, which males provisions
on how funds are disbursed by the nation’s foreign missions.
“It beats every logic that the ministry of foreign affairs
has deliberately refused to abide by the laws of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria and by other statutes of the land, including the standing orders of the
house,” he said.
“The question this
committee is asking the minister of foreign affairs is: Is he bigger than
Nigeria and its laws? Or how else will one explain the constant flagrant abuse
of the laws of the land even when we have continued to write letters to the
ministry reminding it of relevant provisions of our laws that demand
compliance.
“According to section 10 of the Appropriations Act, 2022,
missions and embassies have been empowered to constitute their tender board for
the purpose of the procurements they need to make.
“We have called the attention of the minister to this act,
but he has continued to direct the missions not to obey this law despite
receiving about four letters on the issue, including the latest one of 6
September 2022.
“In addition to the
above, section 7 of the Appropriations Act 2022, captures, inter alia, that
‘the minister of finance shall ensure that funds appropriated under this act
are released to the appropriate agencies and or organs of government as and
when due, provided that no funds for any quarter of the fiscal year shall be
deferred without a prior waiver from the national assembly.”
The lawmaker said the national assembly wrote directly to
the embassies to comply with the aforementioned sections of the 2022
Appropriation Act, but the ministry again, sent a counter directive.
“In total disregard for the above, the ministry has
continued to direct missions to retain and spend monies in their capital
accounts without any waivers from the national assembly.
“A 23rd September 2022 letter by this committee that was
sent to the ministry, as a reminder to earlier ones, still did not stop the
ministry from flouting the laws of the land.
“The minister has
continued to authorise the spending of monies generated through administrative
charges at the missions without being appropriated by the national assembly.
“It is important to note that this committee has continued
to draw the attention of the ministry to the above noted infractions, but all
to no avail.”
ONYEAMA DENIES
WRONGDOING
While responding, Onyeama denied writing to the embassies to
disregard the provisions of the appropriation act.
He said the ministry cannot violate the provisions of law
enacted by the parliament.
“Mr. chairman, contrary to your assertion, the ministry is
in no way trying to flout the laws of the land by trying to appropriate to
itself powers that it does not have,” he said.
“We have here and we
can submit to this committee evidence of directives we have given to the
missions.”
The committee chairman subsequently ruled that the
ministry’s 2023 budget proposal will not be considered until the embassies
fully comply with the law.
“Messages have been
sent to embassies who disregard and disrespect the laws of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, so that is why we will not take your budget presentation of 2023
until these infractions are adhered to,” Yakub said.
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