THE Senate Committee on Works has said it’s decision to remove the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria from the 2023 budget, cannot be reversed.
The committee, which is chaired by Senator Adamu Aleiro, promised to allocate nothing to the professional body in the fiscal year 2023.
A dispute erupted when the Registrar of COREN, Ademola Bello, was asked to justify COREN’s expenditures in the year under review.
According to Bello, for the fiscal year 2022, COREN was given a N2.4 billion budget, however N1.2 billion of that sum, was utilized to plan its annual conference.
He also told the committee members that the personnel cost in the 2023 budget was increased by N200 million because COREN was planning to have its offices in 36 states of the federation in 2023.
In response to a question Aliero asked, Bello said COREN remitted N45 million to the federation’s account. However upon learning of the poor remittance, lawmakers directed COREN officials to produce evidence of remittances 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 chairman of the committee suspended further consideration of COREN’s budget and directed the COREN registrar to provide evidence of remittance to the federation accounts.
