By Abisola THOMPSON
The House of Representatives committee on Commerce, has stepped down the budget consideration of the Ministry of Trade and Investment.
The step down was over the ministry’s failure to appear before the Committee to defend the 2019 budget of the ministry.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sylvester Ogbaga, disclosed this during the budget defence session of the ministry of Trade and Investment on Thursday in Abuja.
The lawmaker said that this was the second time the budget defence of the ministry was being rescheduled.
He noted that last week, it was the minister of Trade and Investment Mr Okechukwu Enelamah, who requested the committee to reschedule the budget defence for Thursday April 4, 2019.
Ogbaga, expressed concern that the minister travelled without notifying the committee that he would not be appearing personally to defend the 2019 budget or a written note to mandate the permanent secretary to represent him.
The chairman of the committee, revealed that there were several grey areas in the 2018 budget of the ministry which the minister needed to clarify.
Ogbaga also disclosed that efforts to embark on an oversight to the ministry had been unsuccessful due to some unreasonable excuses from the minister.
The committee therefore, issued a 24-hour ultimatum on the minister to appear before it or mandate the permanent secretary to represent him or risk zero allocation for ministry in the 2019 budget.====NAN
