The House of Representatives Committee on Land Transport yesterday gave kudos to the Ministry of Transport for successfully defending its 2008 budget expenditure.

The minister, Isa Ibrahim was yesterday asked to take a bow and leave after he successfully defended the 2009 budget proposal of his ministry before the House committee on land transport.

The Minister of the Transport Mr. Isa Ibrahim, in his presentation disclosed that his ministry in between January to November 2008 generated a total of N31, 845, 053.31.

He said while the capital appropriation to the ministry in the 2008 budget amounted to N6, 888, 206, 990, the amended Appropriation bill allocated N6, 159, 391, 714, but the Ministry received only N4, 099, 785, 178; which he claimed had a systemic effect on the performance of the budget.

He gave the summary of the 2008 budget performance of the ministry as N327, 506, 553 as release to the personnel department while same was expended. The overhead release amounted to N119, 376, 862 and only N87, 376, 861 was expended. Also, the Capital releases amounted to N192, 918, 700 and N24, 000, 000 went as expenditure.

For the 2009 budget proposal, the minister said his ministry submitted a total of N3, 234, 841, 021 and N3, 580, 218, 661 as personnel cost to the Federal Ministry of Finance and the National Assembly respectively with a variance of N345, 377, 640.

The ministry also presented as overhead to FMF and NASS N635, 875, 059 and N611, 725, 059 respectively with a variance of N24, 150, 000 while the Capital cost to FMF and NASS run to N35, 874, 633, 245 and N35, 200, 091, 483 respectively with a variance of N674, 541, 762.

Meanwhile, the 2009 budgetary allocation from the ministry to the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) stands at a significant portion of N23, 451, 900, 243 with the National Assembly approving N2, 407, 794, 848 as against the proposal of N2, 140, 262, 087 made by the ministry as total personnel cost. NASS also approved N20, 861, 100, 539 as total capital project for the corporation.