The National Assembly joint committee on Gas and Petroleum Resources has criticized the recurrent expenditure of the ministry of petroleum and its parastatals.
Lawmakers on the joint committee expressed displeasure over the appropriation of about 85 percent of the ministry’s budget to recurrent expenditure at the expense of its capital budget.
The minister of petroleum resources Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke led heads of parastatals under her ministry to a sitting of the joint committee to defend the ministry’s budget.
Of particular mention was the budgetary proposal of the department of petroleum resources, DPR, which would spend N30.399 billion out of its entire N35 billion budget in 2012 to service its recurrent expenditure.
The budget did not go down well with committee member Sen. Gbenga Ashafa who queried why N30 billion would be spent on a workforce of less than 1,500.
However, Petroleum minister explained that the agency would be recruiting massively in 2012, explaining the huge increase in budget.
