National Assembly Queries Ministry Of Water Resources For Paying Over N4billion To 100 Personnel On Three-Month Contract

The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has questioned the Ministry of Water Resources for spending N4 billion on the recruitment of 100 staff for a three-month period.

 

The money was reported to be for an initiative called Youth Engagement for Sanitation (YES) among the country’s 774 local government units.

 

The committee’s chairman, Bamidele Salam, issued the inquiry while probing the government’s Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) for suspected misappropriation of COVID-19 intervention funds from 2020 to 2022.

 

He also questioned the ministry over allegedly sinking boreholes for between N25million and N12.5million for each unit, which he described as inappropriate.

 

Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, informed the committee that boreholes had been sunk at various areas across the federation and the FCT.

 

She was quoted by NAN, “In total, 299 new water schemes were embarked upon during the period, just as a total of 188 old and abandoned solar boreholes were resuscitated during the period.”

 

The members of the committee also wanted to know the method of staff recruiting, the complete list of the kids participating, their account numbers, and the schedule of payments delivered to their separate banks.

 

Salam went on to say that the committee would begin project verification, not only for the ministry, but for other MDAs that claimed to have completed one or more projects.