The House of Representatives Committee on Population has queried the National Population Commission’s N1.9 billion expenditures on summits and conferences.
Recently, the NPC appeared before the lawmakers to defend its 2023 budget when Gbenga Ikengboju (Ondo-APC) moved the motion for the NPC to go back and take a critical look at the discrepancies in the document they presented to the committee.
The lawmaker argued that, the 2022 format presented by the commission is not accepted based on several discrepancies in it.
“We cannot be speculating over taxpayers’ money. I hereby move that they should go back and tidy up these documents,” he said.
READ ALSO: Wanted Lagos Hotelier, nabbed for trafficking of illicit drugs
Similarly, Rep. Ifeanyi Momah (PDP-Anambra), a member of the committee expressed worry over how N129 million was used for a one-day seminar at the villa.
The lawmaker questioned the directors of NPC on whether the money was used for the presidential summit alone or stakeholders conferences held in various states.
He also asked the commission why the N5 billion budgeted for the mock census did not reach the staff deployed for that purpose in Anambra.
According to Momah, some of the staff deployed to Anambra had to reach out to him and other stakeholders for financial support when the money budgeted for that purpose was not forthcoming.
Momah said he along with other stakeholders had to bail the staff out while calling on the commission to throw more light on what they used the money for.
Reps Bamidele Salam (PDP-Osun) also asked why the money used at the villa for the summit was not captured in the 2022 budget.
The committee however asked the commission to furnish the committee with expenditure patterns at the villa summit and the stakeholders’ conferences at the state level.
The committee demanded to know how N5 billion was spent on the mock census while asking that NPC should provide the utilisation of the N1.9 billion spent by the commission.
However, the commission’s Director of Census, Arinola Olanipekun, clarified that the money was N1.9 billion and was spent on hosting summits in the 36 states of the federation.
The committee, therefore, resolved that the commission must address the discrepancies and present details of the expenses.