The Senate has concluded plans to ensure that ministries, departments and agencies implement the 2012 budget.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Ahmed Mohammad Maccido (PDP, Sokoto North) said the legislature would soon begin to monitor how the MDAs spend funds appropriated for them.
According to him, the Senate will, through thorough oversight functions, expose any of the MDAs that fails to judiciously spend funds released to it.
"I am sure if we carry out effective oversight functions on these MDAs, they would spend monies released to them judiciously. And if they don't, we would cry out and tell the country what is happening to their money", he said.
Maccido, who noted that the legislature has the constitutional power to monitor budget performances of the MDAs, said, "By the provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the National Assembly has the right to supervise and scrutinize the spending of these MDAs"
Speaking further, he said the Senate would monitor fund release and cash-backing by relevant ministries to the MDAs.
"When a ministry has been given certain amount of money, it has to work with the money. In the past, they (MDAs) used to collect monies and not do the work. That was because of poor and ineffective oversight functions. This time around, we are going to improve on our oversight functions to stop this", Maccido said.
Daily Trust