Reps probe procurement of police equipment

Posted by admin House, Legislature, Nigerian Police Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

The House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs would begin investigations into the procurement of equipment for the Nigerian Police Force in the 2010 budget, which is expected to lapse on March 31.

Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Abdul Ningi (PDP/Bauchi), who disclosed this during the budget defence session of the Police Ministry, said the Committee was worried by the trend of low capital budget releases to the ministry by the Presidency, hence the need for a review and investigations into the underlying reasons for the dismal releases.

“This Committee is saddened by the fact that only 29.9% of the 2010 budget of the Police Ministry is released in spite of the growing insecurity in the country.

“While it is our view that the amount appropriated for police is meager, the Federal Government has even released more meagre percentage of what was appropriated.

“We are even saddened by the fact that over 90 percent of what was appropriated for recurrent (salaries) is released, while the bulk of capital is not released. And because of these facts, this Committee is, in particular, going to focus on the following in its oversight in the coming week or two.

“We would take a tour of all Nigerian Police formations in Abuja and Lagos to ascertain the number of equipment purchased, the newness of the equipment, the arms and ammunition procured under the normal police budget,” Ningi assured.

Earlier, the Minister of Police Affairs told the Committee that N229.9billion was budgeted in 2010, comprising recurrent expenditure of N174.5 billion; overhead, N5.69billion; and capital, N39.6billion.

According to the Minister, only N5.3billion of the capital expenditure was released in the first quarter, N6.4billion in the second quarter, 4.3billion in the third quarter and nothing in the fourth quarter.

The Ministry complained that most of the capital projects under the Ministry were yet to be implemented, because of “the non-release of capital funds, botched contractual agreements, and liabilities incurred, which are not in consonance with amounts released”.

The Ministry submitted that “this trend has adversely affected the performance of the 2010 budget.”

-Vanguardwp_posts