Niger State House of Assembly has accused the state’s ministry of works of gross misconduct over incurring expenditure above its 2020 appropriation.

Vice chairman of the Assembly’s committee on works, Malik Bosso, made the allegation while speaking to newsmen, shortly after meeting with officials of the ministry at the 2021 budget defence at the House of Assembly Complex in Minna.

Mr. Bosso explained that the assembly approved about N8 billion for the ministry’s capital projects in the 2020 budget, including the revised budget of the ministry, whereas the ministry, in highlighting its 2020 budget performance, said that it spent about N10 billion on its 2020 capital projects.

He noted that the ministry lacked any authority to spend money above its approved budget, describing the act as “gross misconduct” against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The Constitution said that all revenue of the state must be budgeted for, before any expenditure, this means that any money that is not budgeted for or approved by the house cannot be spent, no MDA is allowed to make any expenditure above what was budgeted,” he said.

According to him, the constitution allowed the state governor to submit a budget to the house on estimated revenue for the fiscal year, which would have to be scrutinised and MDAs called for defence, before it is approved.

The lawmaker noted that another window was the supplementary budget, which captured areas that were not captured in the budget by way of supplementary and approved before becoming a legal document.

He said that another area was the revised virement budget for the government to request from the house, but none of these were sent to the house.

Mr. Bosso said that the legislature had sent the ministry away to go and put their heads together then come back and explain to the committee, the constitution that gave it the authority to spend money above its budget.

Earlier, Ibrahim Panti, commissioner of works, had told the legislators that the ministry spent about N10 billion on capital projects in the 2020 budget.