The Senate has accused the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute (NBRI) of generating less than its annual budgetary allocation.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Uche Ekwunife, raised the concern on Wednesday while accessing the Agency’s 2021 budget implementation and 2022 projections.
The NBRI was established as one of the research institutes under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to conduct research on local building and construction materials to determine the most effective and economic methods of their utilisation.
The Senator representing Anambra Central declared that it was unacceptable for the agency to claim it generated only N18 million in the 2021 fiscal year which she noted was less than 10 per cent of the N49 billion budgetary allocation.
She maintained that it was indefensible for a federal agency with a statutory mandate to provide consultancy for all construction projects across the country to generate less than ten percent of its annual allocation.
“Your revenue generation is very poor going by your scope of operations and budgetary allocation for the required performance.”
In his defence, the Director General / Chief Executive Officer of NBRI, Samson Duna, however, offered a startling revelation as he said the agency received only 75 per cent out of its estimate of N49 billion in 2021.
Duna further disclosed that the N18million generated was from journals and tender documents.
According to him, the projected budget allocation for the agency in 2022 is N31 billion.
He further assured the Senate Committee that the agency is collaborating with the Ministry of Works and housing, road maintenance agency and relevant stakeholders in the construction industry, to achieve good and affordable roads across the country.
The lawmakers accused the agency of abandoning its focus and advised the DG of NBRI to concentrate on its
core mandates of road research to ensure cheap ways of road construction to achieve good and lasting roads across the country.
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Your revenue generation is poor, Senate carpets NBRI
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