Defence, Due Process trade blames over Navy's N3b
From Pascal Nwigwe, Abuja
THE House of Representatives has intervened to help the Nigerian Navy have access to its N3 billion budgetary allocation supposedly trapped in the coffers of the Federal Ministry of Defence at the instance of the Due Process Office.
But the Ministry of Defence is trading blames with the Due Process Office Head and Senior Special Assistant on Budget, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, over the development.
The development came just as the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chidi Nwogu, released a statement, urging government institutions to take their cue from the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory and National Airspace Management Agency by complying with Due Process requirements.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Navy, Mr. Tony Aziegbemi, said the development would lead to a meeting this November between the leadership of the committee and the Due Process Office.
Recounting complaints made by the Minister of State for Defence, Roland Oritsejafor, pursuant to questions on the Navy budget and its expenditure, Aziegbemi said the Defence Ministry was inadvertently accusing the Due Process of frustrating its attempts at accessing the capital votes budgeted for it in the 2004 Appropriation Act.
"We first probed to know why the Navy has not yet received a kobo of its capital money and we discovered that the Navy has satisfied all necessary requirements of the Due Process Office. We found out also that it is the Ministry of Defence that is delaying the money released for the Navy. It was then, we invited the Minister for Defence, who was represented in a meeting with us by the Minister of State," he said.
According to the Chairman, the Minister of State for Navy explained that the Due Process Office had introduced the extra requirement of Due Process Certificate of Award, in addition to Due Process Certificate of Payment. The Minister of State said what the Navy Headquarters had, was Due Process Certificate of payment.
Contacted over the complaint by the committee chairman, the Due Process boss said she was not aware of such a development.
Speaking on the complaints by various ministries and agencies of the Federal Government against Due Process, Nwogu told reporters that the problems did not lie with the exercise but with the bureaucrats who erroneously perceived it as a temporary measure rather than a regulatory policy which had come to stay.
He claimed that agencies under his oversight jurisdiction, like the National Airspace Management Agency and Agro-research institutes had accessed their capital votes in full, adding that the enactment of the incoming Due Process Act would rectify the problems.
