Reps Fault Ministry On Budget Implementation

The House of Representatives Committee on Culture, Tourism and National Orientation in Abuja on Tuesday, faulted the Ministry of Culture and Tourism over poor implementation of 2012 capital budget.

Rep. Ben Nwankwo ( PDP-Anambra), the Chairman of the committee, said during budget defence by the ministry that if yearly budgets were implemented accordingly, they would generate employment for the country’s teeming unemployed youths.

“We are not generally satisfied with the implementation of the capital budget,” he said.

He said that implementation of the budget was not a matter of choice but guided by law.

“Budget is a law, there is no choice for selective implementation, government should be decent in implementing it,” he said.

He said the committee would not expect anything less than a full implementation of the 2013 budget.

Nwankwo also warned that Nigerians would not accept poor implementation of the budget in 2013.

The legislator said the budget in the coming year should be able to add value to the sector.

He urged the executive arm of government to desist from selective implementation of budgets.

Nwankwo said that, henceforth, the committee would expect the ministry to brief it on shortfalls before reallocating funds to other areas.

In his presentation, Mr Edem Duke, the Minister in charge of the ministry, disclosed that N582 million was allocated to the ministry in 2012 for capital projects.

He explained that between January and November, N268 million was released to the ministry, representing 46 per cent leaving a balance of N313 million.

Duke added that N588 million was allocated to the ministry out of which N499 million released to the ministry between January and October for overhead, representing 84 per cent.

He said that the level of performance of capital budget was 98 per cent.