The 2016 budget defence in the National Assembly may witness a lot of controversies and scandals as the Committee on Education, which kickstarted the exercise in the Upper Chamber yesterday uncovered N9.982,258,479 tucked into the budget of parastatals by the Ministry of Education.
The Committee was puzzled when it observed that, while the entire personnel cost for the ministry and all its subsidiaries including schools and colleges declined drastically when compared to that of last year, only that of parastatals increased at geometric progression by almost N10 billion.
This immediately provoked the committee’s suspicion that the huge sum was deliberately hidden under parastatals’ personnel cost for purposes other than what it was earmarked for.
With this development, the education parastatals’ personnel cost rose from N88.1 billion in 2015 to N98.1 billion in 2016 estimates while the personnel budget of universities was reduced by as much as N16.245 billion, declining from N227.2 billion in 2015 to N211.0 billion in 2016.
Similarly, colleges of education budget declined from N40.2 billion in 2015 to N37.6 billion while polytechnics’ personnel cost which was N61.44 billion in 2015 was reduced to N58.23 billion, the same way unity colleges’ budget was slashed from N288.7 to N7.588 billion. It was further observed that the ministry itself has its own budget cut by only N244.9 million from N3.768 billion in 2015 to N3.523 billion in 2016, while UNESCO Paris has a drastic reduction of its budget from N288.3billion in 2015 to N7.588 billion in 2016.
While appearing before the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education for budget defence, Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka, who was accompanied by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Folasade Yemi-Esan, gave account of the education budget performance in 2015.
He explained that, of the total N483. 183 billion budget for education in 2015, only N13.279 billion was released, adding that only 50 per cent of N23.5 billion, amounting to N11.9 billion was released for capital education.
Meanwhile, at the end of his presentation, a member of the committee and Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, queried the rationale behind the increase in only the budget of parastatals by about N10 billion while the budget of universities reduced by as much N16 billion. Adeyeye expressed concern that parastatals which were meant to support the institutions had their personnel budget increased by such a huge sum, insisting that explanation be given by the minister.
