The House of Representatives has rejected the N58 million capital allocation in the 2023 budget proposal to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

Nassir Ahmed, chairman of the Committee on Public Procurement, rejected the budget proposal when Mamman Ahmadu, the director-general of BPP, appeared to defend the 2023 budget on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said such an amount was ridiculous and unacceptable, adding that the DG must make a case for BPP to correct such an anomaly.

“You have to make a case for this budget proposal; this amount is too little to run an agency; even if you are working with the envelope system, the onus is on you to make a case.

“Your agency is very relevant to the growth of this country. If you get your procurement right, there will be less cost, and you will get the best to do the job.

“So if you do not make that case and bring it before the committee, no one is going to do that for you. You cannot run an agency with N58 million. It’s too small. You must make a strong case,” he said.

The committee chairman faulted the reduction of the capital expenditure from N94 million to N58 million.

“This is inadequate, even local government chairmen have more than N58 million, and we have local governments that collect 500 million as allocation.

“We must sit with the Senate committee to see how the budget can be increased, we should look at this as a committee.

“The BPP is an agency that is very strategic and important. The 58 million allocated is very ridiculous,” he said.

The committee, however, raised the issue of the N67 million spent on local training and N129 million spent on international training by the bureau.

The committee said Nigeria remained the loser with the poor budgeting for the bureau.

The DG had claimed in his 2022 budget performance that the bureau spent N67 million on local training while N129 million was expended on international training.

He commended the committee for the support received over the year, adding that the support had been impactful and overwhelming.

(NAN)