Two standing
committees of the Senate have come down hard on two agencies seeking foreign
loans and approval of their 2021 budget proposals.
The
Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, during an interface with the Ministries
of Agriculture, Finance and Debt Management Office (DMO) in Abuja, demanded for
details of 995million Euros and $1.5 billion foreign credit before approval.
Also,
the Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) refused sanctioning the N8.5
billion 2021 budget estimates tabled before it by FCT-IRS.
Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohmmamed Sabo Nanono and DMO’s Director
General, Patience Oniha, failed to convince the panel on the imperativeness of
the loans.
Consequently,
two segments of the facilities being sought by the Federal Government for
mechanised farming and execution of critical infrastructure across the 36
states to stave the third wave of COVID-19 in the country came under scrutiny.
The
plan of action, submitted by Nanono concerning the 995 million Euros for
large-scale farming across the 774 councils, was faulted by virtually all
members of the committee, headed by Senator Clifford Ordia (PDP: Edo Central).
The minister
had, in his submission, said since only 34 million hectares of the nation’s 92
million hectares of cultivable land were in use, 780 service centres had been
set up nationwide for mechanised farming.
He
said: “The ministry is in a bilateral partnership with Brazil where 300
tractors are to be bought and imported for the project this year once the loan
is approved.
“The
country, as it is today, is in deficit of 60,000 tractors, the reason the
ministry is planning for procurement of 5,000 tractors every three years. All
these plans of ours are geared towards food security in the country whose
population would be 400 million in 40 years from now.”
Faulting
the submission as an unyielding one, the lawmakers reminded the minister that
beautiful plans were different from practical Implementation.
On
the $1.5 billion loan proposal for the 36 state governments and the FCT for
execution of critical COVID-19 infrastructure, Ordia directed the DMO boss to
furnish the committee with the credit worthiness of the states, which she
couldn’t produce.
Therefore,
the committee resolved that she must supply the document before authorisation.
Same fate befell the FCT-IRS based on discrepancies in its proposal.
The agency was directed to appear before the Senator Abubakar Kyari (APC: Borno North)-led panel tomorrow for fresh presentation.
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