Abuja — The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) Wednesday, expressed dismay with officials of Ministry of Petroleum Resources for what it termed unsatisfactory implementation of the 2009 budget.

The committee made its position known at a meeting with the ministry's Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Elizabeth Emuren, who led the representatives of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) and Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) to the House.

While going through the details of the budget as presented by the ministry, members of the committee noted that the financial information was laced with "misplaced figures, over-appropriated and utilised sums", and amounts reflected on the document in 'error'.

The permanent secretary, however, admitted that some of the discrepancies observed by the lawmakers were caused by typographical errors and therefore demanded for time to strengthen out the document.

One of the areas that caught the attention of the committee was where a total of N80 million first quarter release of the 2009 budget and N89 million second quarter release was given as N80 million.

A contract for Nigeria Gas Master Plan In-House Forum given as N600million in this year's budget was recorded incorrectly, as it became unclear what the contract value stood at, percentage of work done and the value of what is left.

When asked to clear the issue, the permanent secretary disclosed that some of the funds were domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which were not captured in her document, but would be utilised before the end of the year.

The last quarter allocation, she explained, was only released to the ministry on Monday.

When asked to account for the state of the nation's oil sector at the moment, she further claimed to be ignorant of it, insisting that only the ministers could do so.

"I will not be able to tell you the state of the petroleum sector at the moment. From the point I came to the ministry, I have not been part of meeting to assess the sector.

"There are those who are in the position to do so, and if they come here, they should be able to brief you, even in details," she said.

Chairman of the Committee, Bassey Otu, expressed displeasure at the response of the permanent secretary, and declared that the ministry was undergoing a reformatory process, which requires technocrats who should be able to tell a way forward for the sector.

"I must say that we need those who are ready to work in the sector, and no more. Time is gone when people, who don't know what to do are given responsibilities at the expense of those who are fit for employment.

"Anyone who is not ready to work should go because we will not tolerate any form of indiscipline in this sector.

"It is important that we as parliament know the state of the oil sector at the moment," he said.

He stated that it would be difficult to further appropriate funds to the ministry if it fails to justify its expenditure in this year's budget, and further advance what it hopes to achieve with its budgetary proposals for 2010.