Labour Ministry Seeks N622.5m For Overseas, Local Trips

Posted by admin Chinedu Vincent Akuta, Latest Politics, Ministries Thursday, January 27th, 2011

The Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity yesterday urged the House of Representatives to approve the sum of N622.5 million for local and overseas travels in the 2011 fiscal year.

Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr Emeka Wogu, made the plea during its budget defence meeting with the House Committee on Labour.

The ministry which has a N9.15billion budget proposal, has the sum of N8.283 billion for personnel and overhead costs and a capital vote of N775.9 million, while the proposed personnel and overhead costs were N4.995b and N3.288 billion respectively.

Mr Wogu told the committee that the ministry required N300 million for local travels and transport, and another an additional N322.5 million for international meetings and travels in the 2011 fiscal year.

He explained that there are three international conferences and governing board meetings which will each gulp an estimated sum of N40 million each.

Other expenses include the ECOWAS Ministers of Labour conference and some African conferences which are estimated at N20 million per trip.

Requesting for more funds, Wogu said, for local travels and transport, “Specifically, we had travel commitments of over N71 million that could not be accommodated due to the revised budget of 2010. We believe that an increase of up to 60 percent in the proposed budget could be reasonable.”wp_posts