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The Senate on Thursday rejected N11 billion inserted in the budget of Ministry of Defence by the Minister of Defence , Rtd Major General Bashir Magashi. .
The Committee on Defence exposed the insertion of N11 billion in the budget of the Ministry during 2023 Budget defence of the Ministry on Thursday..
The N11 billion inserted in the budget contained N8.6billion earmarked for procurement of military hardwares / equipment and N2.25billion for safe School initiatives .
One of the Committee members, Senator Itstifanus Gyang said ” Hon Minister , in the proposed 2023 budget of your Ministry N8.6billion is discovered to have been allocated for purchase of military hardwares and N2.25billion for Safe School Initiatives .
” The two items , when critically viewed , were not supposed to be in the Ministry ‘s budget since hardware procurements are done by the Army , Navy and Air Force and Safe School Initiative by the Federal Ministry of Education .
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” These to us, are duplications of budgetary votes which require explanations from you “, he said
The Minister in his response sought for permission of the Committee for the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry , Dr Ibrahim Abubakar Kana to respond .
The Permanent Secretary in his response , told the Committee that the sums were inserted into the Ministry ‘s budget for 2022 fiscal year by the Minister of Finance and National Planning , Mrs Zainab Ahmed .
” The two budgetary votes were not initiative of the Ministry . The Ministry of Finance and National Planning put them there ‘, he said .
Apparently not satisfied with the explanation offered by the Permanent Secretary, the Committee through its Chairman, Senator Aliyu Wamakko told the Minister that both the N8.6billion and N2.25billion proposals for procurement of hard wares and Safe School Initiatives , would be expunged from the Ministry’s budget .
