Posted by From Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja on
Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday, regaled a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on foreign affairs about how the Ministry's officials inflated a debt....
Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday, regaled a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on foreign affairs about how the Ministry's officials inflated a debt of $2,300 owed an international organisation to $4.6m and paid the latter amount to the organisation.
Okonjo-Iweala, however, said the international organisation has informed the Federal Government that it was owed $2,300 and not the $4.6m remitted to it.
The Minister also informed the joint committee that the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are already investigating the circumstances under which the over-payment was made.
Okonjo-Iweala, who made these revelations while briefing the joint committee on the problems facing the ministry, said the ministry is not connected to internet services that would link it to other parts of the world; poor power availability; as well as infrastructural state of the embassies and high commissions abroad.
She recalled that the poor situation of power supply in the ministry recently forced a visiting European Union delegation to walk up a flight of stairs to her office rather than use the elevator, adding that, the roofs of the Nigeria's embassies in Iran, Togo, and Brazil are in disrepute
'How can you have a Minister of Foreign Affairs that can not communicate on the internet with the rest of the world on the internet?"
Okonjo-Iweala, who said the state of affairs in the ministry is affecting the morale of staff, however said that she has opened discussions with the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria as well as the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory on the power situation as well as internet connectivity using the FCT's wireless fidelity (wifi).
She also frowned at the collapse of competence, on the alter of federal character, stressing that 'we should be talking about whether these policies were working or not. We should be taling about the skills we need and whether the staff fit and can be sent abroad. It should not be an entitlement mentality to posting but whether the required skills are there."
The Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Nkem Wadibe-Anyanwu, who also participated at the session, noted that the embassies were overstaffed and the government has expressed concern on their financing.