The Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education on
Thursday said it had uncovered N5bn shortfall in the
amount provided for meal subsidy for the unity schools
across the country and the personnel cost of King’s College,
Lagos in the 2016 budget proposal submitted by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
The Vice-Chairman of the committee, Senator Rose Oko, said
the anomaly was discovered during the collation of the
2016 budget by the Senate Committee on Appropriation.
Oko explained to the lawmakers that only N6.8bn was
proposed for meal subsidy in unity schools instead of
N11.2bn needed.
The amount, according to her, was inadequate for the unity
schools meal subsidy, adding that the implication was that
the amount provided would only be enough for six months.
This, she added, meant that the ministry would need to look
for N5bn to meet up with the shortfall.
She also told the appropriation committee that there was an
omission of N338m from the personnel cost of King’s
College.
She explained that instead of N375m, the ministry budgeted
N37m as a result of typographical errors which brought
about the shortfall of N338m.
However, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, assured Nigerians
that the committee would accommodate the omission in the
final budget.
He said his panel would find a way of looking for N5bn in
order to cater for meal subsidy in unity schools and
personnel cost at the King’s College.
Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday assured Nigerians of
effective monitoring of the 2016 budget implementation by
involving the various civil society groups in its oversight
functions.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and
Civil Societies Organisations, Senator Rose Oko, who stated
this in her office, said the Eight Senate had resolved in its
legislative agenda that it would engage, very robustly, the
major stakeholders.
She said the civil society groups remained major
stakeholders that were critical to the success of the current
administration’s determination to tackle corruption and
achieve fiscal discipline.
She said that the contributions of all the civil society groups
who participated in the interactive session with the National
Assembly on the 2016 budget would be taken into
consideration and adopted by the federal parliament.
She said, “Going forward, the Senate has promised to
involve adequately the CSOs in the process of budget
passage, monitoring of its implementation and oversight on
Ministries, Departments and Agencies, to curb corruption
and extravagance.
Oko said the Senate would soon draw out a programme of
action that would bring on board, the CSOs in the area of
oversight and other aspects of legislation.
She said, “We will work out the details of the oversight since
this is the first time we are experimenting such an
arrangement. The CSOs have also challenged us to be more
open with our budget and we have assured them.”
The report of her committee’s engagement with the CSOs,
was considered on Thursday, with the various groups asking
the Federal Government to allocate 10 per cent of the 2016
budget to agriculture.
They also frowned on the inflation of contract in virtually all
the parastatals in the Federal Ministry of Education and
urged the National Assembly to address the issue as part of
measures to tackle the rot in the sector.
The groups, therefore, urged the federal parliamentarians to
ensure proper clean-up of the budget before its eventual
passage next month.

Source: www.punchng.com/senate-uncovers-n5bn-shortfall-in-education-ministry-budget/

Oko explained to the lawmakers that only N6.8bn wasproposed for meal subsidy in unity schools instead ofN11.2bn needed.

The amount, according to her, was inadequate for the unityschools meal subsidy, adding that the implication was that the amount provided would only be enough for six months.

This, she added, meant that the ministry would need to lookfor N5bn to meet up with the shortfall.She also told the appropriation committee that there was anomission of N338m from the personnel cost of King’sCollege.

She explained that instead of N375m, the ministry budgetedN37m as a result of typographical errors which brought
about the shortfall of N338m.

.. seems some people deliberately sabotaged this subject!! ... Too bad

The Senate should just seize this budget of yam rice so that we go hear word ..

So much incompetence

the meeting was successful, finally the budget of yams wasn't padded by rats instead shortfalls were noticed. Isokay

Shortfall in what
Meal subsidy
This people ain't joking anymore
Who's fooling who?

1 thing they're ever so good at is misappropriate our billions. why is nigeria so plagued with bad leaders?

Which way NIGERIA?

The senators have an interest in this short fall else they wont have noticed it. Maybe that na where dem from dey chop before.