Reps give minister of trade 24hrs to defend budget or risk zero allocation

Owing to its failure to appear before the House of Representatives to defend its 2019 budget, the committee on commerce has stepped down the budget consideration of the ministry of trade and investment for the second time.

The committee also threatened to approve no allocation for the ministry in the budget, if it fails to come to defend its budget.

Chairman of the committee, Sylvester Ogbaga, disclosed this during the budget defence session of the ministry of Trade and Investment on Thursday in Abuja

Ogbaga noted that the defence was rescheduled following the continued absence of Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of trade and investment.

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He said the minister had last week requested the committee to reschedule the budget defence for Thursday, April 4.

Ogbaga expressed concern that the minister travelled “without notifying the committee” or writing it to mandate the permanent secretary to represent him.

Furthermore, the chairman observed that there were several grey areas in the 2018 budget of the ministry which the minister needed to clarify.

He also disclosed that efforts to embark on an oversight visit to the ministry had been unsuccessful due to “some unreasonable excuses from the minister.”

The committee, therefore, issued a 24-hour ultimatum demanding the appearance of the minister or that of the permanent secretary.

A senate committee had earlier this week rejected the budget of the ministry over an alleged inclusion of a private company.

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