Budget: Senate condemns NEITI over N960m personnel cost for 43 staff

THE Senate has kicked against the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI’ s N960 million personnel cost in 2022 budget for 43 staff.

It queried the expenditure when the Executive Secretary of NEITI , Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya, appeared before the Senator Matthew Urhoghide, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Edo South-led Senate Committee to  present his 2023 budget for the first time.

Trouble started when Ogbonnaya in his presentation before the committee, read the 2022 budget performance, explaining that the personnel cost of the agency was N960 million, while overhead cost stood at N760.9 million and the capital budget, N344 million.

Speaking further, the Executive Secretary of NEITI said 51 per cent of personnel cost had been spent, while 58 per cent of overhead cost was spent and only 50 per cent of capital had been released so far.

Not comfortable with his explanations, chairman of the committee, Senator Urhoghide, wondered how the agency could spend only 51 per cent of his personnel cost as at November 2022, stressing that this was the case of over bloated personnel cost in the agency.

Urhoghide said:  “You have only taken 51 per cent of your personnel cost.  As at November, your personnel cost is really really too high, you have only two months and  you have just collected 51 per cent of your personnel cost.

“This is one case of personnel budget over bloated.  What we are suspecting is systemic leakage.  We are going to reduce your personnel cost to less than N500 million.”

Responding, the Executive Secretary explained that when the agency started operations, it was only on oil and gas, adding that it had now moved into solid minerals and needs more manpower to carry our its operations.

According to him, the agency currently has 43 staff and has approval to recruit more staff which was made available in the 2022 budget.

He said the process had just been concluded, and that the newly recruited 70 staff are already captured by Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system, IPPIS, and had not been paid.

However, Senator Ibrahim Danbaba asked the Executive Secretary of NEITI to submit the nominal role of the agency to ascertain what he told the lawmakers.