The Senate committee on Works has said that the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria has been excluded from the 2023 budget and this decision cannot be reversed.
The committee, which is chaired by Senator Adamu Aleiro, promised to allocate nothing to the trade association in the fiscal year 2023.
When the COREN Registrar, Ademola Bello, was asked to defend COREN’s expenses for the year under discussion, a disagreement erupted.
For the fiscal year 2022, COREN was given a N2.4 billion budget, but N1.2 billion of that sum, according to Bello, was utilized to plan its annual conference.
Additionally, he informed the committee members that because COREN planned to have its offices in 36 states of the federation in 2023, the personnel cost in the 2023 budget was increased by N200 million.
Bello stated that COREN transferred N45 million to the federation’s account in response to Aliero’s inquiry. When parliamentarians learned about the inadequate remittance, they ordered COREN personnel to present documentation of payments to the federation.
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 N45 million 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 postponed further discussion of the COREN budget.
