Nigerian embassies to fuel, maintain generators with N200m 2013 budget.

A power plant

Senate Committee on Appropriation has questioned  provision of N200m for the maintenance and fuelling of generators in foreign missions in the 2013  budget.

It also discovered that besides African  countries  where power may be problematic, provisions were also made for missions in developed countries with stable power supply.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Mohammed Maccido, had made some observations relating to the MDAs inserting  questionable items in the budget while commenting on the general principles of the budget last week.

The committee wondered why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would fuel and  maintain  generators in  the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium where power stability is taken for granted.

Some of the figures available to the committee showed that  N696,367 was voted for the maintenance of generators in Brussels and , N1.09m voted for the same purpose in Berlin.

Abu Dhab, Accra, Addis Ababa, Algiers and Ankara received N366,982 each; the mission in Bamamako, got  N371, 911; Bangkok, N606,599; Banjul, N219,356; Bangui, N606, 599 and Beijing received N688, 594 for the maintenance of generators.

The budget of the Ministry also shows that the posting of ambassadors missions will gulp  N1.35bn, just as N13bn will be used to settle the aggregate indebtedness of the 112 missions.

There is also the curious provision of N510m for payments for the depreciation of the Naira against foreign currencies.

Maccido said the provisions for the maintenance of generators raised concerns of transparency in the process of budgeting.

He said, “These are areas that we should be looking at. A situation where N200m is voted for generators and fuelling in countries where power is stable is not fair.

“We also find in the budget where N61m is voted for refreshments. We have to look into all these areas,” he said.

Leader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba, told our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday that the committee had the mandate to take a look at such questionable insertions and make appropriate corrections.

He said, “The ultimate power of appropriation rests with the National Assembly. The committees has the mandate to look out for suchanomalies and make the necessary corrections.”