The Senate Committee on Works has stated that it will not reverse its decision to remove the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria from the budget for 2023.
According to The PUNCH, the Senator Adamu Aleiro-led committee vowed to give the professional body a zero allocation in the 2023 fiscal year.
The conflict began when COREN’s Registrar, Ademola Bello, was asked to justify COREN’s expenditures for the fiscal year under review.
COREN was allocated N2.4 billion for fiscal year 2022, according to Bello, but N1.2 billion of that amount was used to organize its annual conference.
He also informed committee members that the personnel cost in the 2023 budget had been increased by N200 million because COREN planned to open offices in all 36 states of the federation in 2023.
In response to Aliero’s question, Bello stated that COREN transferred N45 million to the federation’s account. When lawmakers learned of the poor remittance, they directed COREN officials to produce evidence of federation remittances.
Senator George Sekibo, a committee member, stated that COREN could stand alone as a professional organization similar to the Nigeria Bar Association, Nigeria Medical Association, and other professional organizations, and that there was no reason to keep it under the federal budget.
He said, ”How can COREN spend about N1.2bn on annual conference and remit just N45m into the federation accounts? The government needs money to provide infrastructure to Nigerians. COREN should be made to stand as a professional body and stay out of money from the government.”
The COREN registrar was instructed to present documentation of remittance to the federation accounts after the committee chairman suspended further discussion of the COREN budget.
