"Any agency that fails to appear before this committee upon invitation risks zero allocation in the 2025 budget because records of how appropriations made for 2024 are expended must be provided with facts and figures."
The Senate Committee on Finance has warned that ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the federal government that fail to provide explanation on their spendings for the 2024 budget will not get funds approved for them in the 2025 budget.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sani Musa, said this during an investigative hearing on the remittance of revenue generating agencies for the year held on Monday at the National Assembly.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, presented a summary of the federal government's revenue from January to September, during the hearing.
During the hearing, Mr Musa said the committee will invite all heads of MDAs for questioning to give a breakdown of their spendings for the year as contained in the approved budget.
The Niger East senator said all the ministries and government agencies must appear before the committee or risk not getting funds allocated to them in the 2025 budget.
"This performance index exercise on the various MDAs is preparatory to the 2025 budget.
"Any agency that failed to appear before this committee upon invitation risks zero allocation in the 2025 budget because records of how appropriations made for 2024 are expended must be provided with facts and figures," he said.
Criticism for centralised payment system
The committee members also criticised the federal government's payment system which requires over 700 MDAs to process payments through a single office.
They argued that the payment system has caused inefficiency,, delayed projects and diminished public trust, especially in constituencies expecting the execution of critical infrastructure projects.
In her response, Ms Madein explained that the centralised payment system was introduced to curb inefficiency and prevent unutilised funds from being rolled over annually.
