Members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday told Nigerian Ministers and other public officials working with the Executive arm of government that they were subject to scrutiny at all times on how budgetary allocations to their offices were used and that they will go to jail if they spend money without appropriation.
The lawmakers also said it would be an illegality which attracts a certain jail term should any minister go ahead to spend money not appropriated by the Legislature.
They therefore decided that henceforth, executive officials that fail to give a comprehensive account of allocations made to them would not have their 2019 budgets approved by the House.
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nkiru Onyejiocha handed down the warning at a public hearing meant to scrutinize chief executives of 4 agencies in the sector on the performances of monies appropriated to them.
The officials included the Directors-General of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), that of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA); and Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), as well at the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet).
Angry that none of the invited chief executives honoured the invitation sent to them to appear and defend their budget performances of the last 18 months, the committee which refused to take presentations from their representatives ruled that the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and his aviation counterpart, Hadi Sirika must appear before the lawmakers on Thursday this week.
