* Threatens to slash ‘bloated’ budget
The Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) has queried the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) over N960 million personnel cost in 2022 budget for 43 staff.
The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, had appeared to present his 2023 Budget before the Public Accounts Panel for the first time.
While presenting the budget, Dr Orji read the 2022 budget performance to the Committee, saying the Personnel Cost of the agency is N960million, while overhead cost is N760.9 million and the Capital budget is N344 million.
According to him, 51 percent of personnel cost has been spent, while out of the 58 percent of overhead cost, only 50 percent of capital has so far been released.
But the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, in his response wondered why only 51 percent of its personnel cost is spent as at November 2022. He described it as a case of bloated personnel cost in the agency.
He said: “You have only taken 51 percent of your personnel cost in November; your personnel cost is really too high. You have only two months, you have just collected 51 percent of your personnel cost.
“This is one case of bloated personnel budget. What we are seeing is that, it is systemic leakage. We are going to reduce your personnel cost to less than N500 million.”
Responding, Orji explained that when the agency started operations, it was only on oil and gas, but now, the agency has moved into solid minerals and it needs more manpower to carry out its operations.
The agency currently has 43 staff, according to the Executive Secretary.
He said the agency had the approval to recruit more staff and this was made available in the 2022 budget, adding that the process has recently been concluded.
He added that the newly recruited 70 staff are already captured by IPPIS and not yet being paid.
However, Senator Ibrahim Danbaba, asked the Executive Secretary to submit the nominal role of the agency.