The House of Representatives Committee on Power had vowed to withhold approval for the 2021 budget proposal of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) if the commission fails to pay all outstanding debts owed to the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
The Managing Director of REA, Ahmad Salhijo, had told Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Magaji Da’u Aliyu, at the budget defence session, that one of the impediments faced by his agency in the discharge of its duties is the inability to get the operating surpluses from NERC turned over to it as expected under the law.
In his response, Aliyu said NERC must first issue a cheque to the REA before the Committee will consider approving it’s 2021 budget proposal.
“I want you and your Executive Director, Finance to come back here tomorrow by 11: am. We will tell them that you’re here because of them and we will ask them where is your money.
“They will be made to issue a cheque to you here, otherwise, we will not consider their budget, because what they have done is against the law,” he said.
The committee chairman expressed sadness that operations of the REA were being hampered by the failure of the Commission to remit the funds saying that without the money, they will not pass NERC’s budget.
The committee also warned agencies under its supervision, that it would not consider fresh projects in their 2021 budgets, especially where there are a plethora of ongoing projects.
Aliyu told the REA MD that a sub-team under the leadership of the deputy chairman would need to put heads together with REA team in studying its last performance and the 2021 proposals.
Salihijo, while explaining to the committee why the N11.5 billion Rural Electricity was yet to be utilized, stated that the agency had a lot of delay during the bidding process because of the huge number of contractors that responded.
“We received over 7,000 bids, but we’ve gotten to a point stage where we would be awarding the contracts, like what happened last year, we believe we would be allowed to use the funds until March next year”, he said.
The total budget of the agency, as presented before the committee was N17.864 billion.
[…] It thus resolved to summon the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed; Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze; Accountant General of the Federation; Ahmed Idris; Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan; and Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission. […]