The chairman of the committee on public accounts of the House of Representatives, Kingsley Chinda, has accused the administration of Muhammadu Buhari of keeping most of its financial dealings so secret from Nigerians to the extent that corruption thrives more in the government than any in the past.
The senior legislator who represents Obior/Akpor federal constituency of Rivers state made this revelation in an interview reported by Vanguard.
Chinda says Buhari's government more corrupt than any other in the past
The implication of this is that the budget is fraught with a lot of controversial stipulations that could pitch the National Assembly against the executive arm of the federal government again.
“I have said that the present administration is more corrupt than previous. I said so because what is happening in the system today is that individuals will steal public funds and pretend as if nothing is happening.
“And if we look at the things that are in place, the recovery of funds that is in place, they are all shrouded in secrecy.
“How much has been recovered? What do we have in the TSA? They are all shrouded in secrecy.
“And for a government that is talking of anti-corruption and transparency, how then can you be that secret? Buhari is constrained.
“If you also look at the budget that Mr President has just presented, I call it a recipe for corruption.
“The base is faulty, the facts are not correct,” he said.
Corruption taking to higher level in Buhari's government - Rep member
He said the budget was based on 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day, adding that this was faulty.
“It is not achievable and even where you achieve 2.2 million barrels, how much comes to the federal government? It is not the entire 2.2 million that comes to the federal government,” he added.
According to him, if the crude is $45 per barrel, then what would be the profit on one barrel of crude?
“And then what percentage of that profit comes to the federal government? So you would find out that the calculation is faulty and how can you be talking about change, you present a budget without MTEF.
And tomorrow it would look like the National Assembly is the problem with the budget, when there is no MTEF.
“We could come out with the medium term expenditure framework and give bench mark for crude and it is not in tandem with the bench mark they used, what would happen? There would be another logjam.”
