Water Resources Officials Queried over N30m Counterpart Funding, N20m IGR

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives on Tuesday grilled officials of the Ministry of Water Resources over a 2013 N30 million counterpart funding for the African Ministerial Conference on Water (AMCOW), and a N20 million unremitted internally generated revenue.

The committee led by Hon. Kingsley Chinda (Rivers PDP) cited the 2010 to 2013 report of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAGF) which raised 18 queries in the expenditure of the Ministry in the audited period.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Rabi Jimeta, explained that the Ministry was constrained by low budget personal performance, and therefore not able to release the whole appropriation for the counterpart funding to the development partners.

Only the sum of N19.3 million was released in 2013, she noted, and admitted that an incomplete release of financial obligations hampers full implementation of development projects.

In this instance however, Nigeria’s counterpart fund was for the maintenance of AMCOW secretariat which is based in Abuja, she disclosed.

“The budget performance in 2013 was 65.7 percent. N30 million was appropriated, and N19.3 million was released,” she said and added that the Ministry is currently working to ensure it meets up 100 percent of its financial obligations to its development partne