Nigeria’s Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has decried a lack of finances in her ministry, stating that she will ask the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, for assistance in paying some contractors who completed work for her ministry.
“There is no money in the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. Most of the initiatives I undertake are funded through external sources. We are severely underfunded and indebted,” Kennedy-Ohanenye said on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Monday.
“We have certified only four or five contractors as ready for payment, as they are the ones with completion certificates. There is a set completion period for projects, and failure to meet it can result in project revocation or depletion of available funds for payment.
“The Permanent Secretary has proposed forming a committee to either utilize the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) to request financial assistance from the Ministry of Finance for these liabilities, as we lack the funds to pay.
“Alternatively, we can roll some of these into ongoing projects for 2024. Any contractors within this scope will receive payment. I am committed to this issue because I don’t want people to work and suffer, but my hands are tied due to the lack of funds.”
Last Tuesday, a heated confrontation occurred between members of the House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development and Kennedy-Ohanenye over corruption allegations against her ministry.
The committee chaired by Kafilat Ogbara launched a probe into the suspected misappropriation of ₦1.5 billion meant for contractor payments in the Women’s Affairs Ministry.
The committee called the minister after receiving petitions from contractors alleging unpaid bills for finished projects.
‘₦1.5 billion used to clear backlog.’
On Monday, the minister said that MPs did not let her to explain and that she was interrupted.
Kennedy-Ohanenye explained that the majority of the contracts in question were awarded before she took office in August.
She noted that the ₦1.5bn allocated for projects in 2024was used to settle existing bills within the ministry.
“Before the ₦1.5bn was allocated, the ministry was already owing double that amount and began gradually paying off debts,” she said.
“Some contracts were awarded in March, funds were released in May 2023, and I assumed office in August 2023. Upon my arrival, I checked the contracts and discovered that many of them were incomplete. Only roughly four files were cleaned. Furthermore, the ministry has huge liabilities due to persistent underfunding.
“When the ₦1.5bn was allocated in October, it was used to start clearing the backlog of payments.”