By ERICJAMES OCHIGBO

The House of Representatives Committee on Science Engineering on Thursday expunged the 2026 budget of National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) from the national budget.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee also recommended the sack of the Director-General, Dr Olushola Odusanya, for refusal to appear to defend the budget and submit documents for scrutiny.

Part of the resolutions of the committee during the 2026 budget defence in Abuja was also to step down the consideration of the 2026 budget of the agency.

Chairman of the committee, Rep. Inuah Garba (PDP-Gombe), said that if President Bola Tinubu could appear before the assembly to present the national budget, none of his appointees should be too big to appear.

Garba said that the committee would not tolerate any form of disrespect for Nigeria’s constitution, the legislature or democracy as a whole, under any guise.

He said that the ruling of the committee would serve as deterrent to other appointees of government.

In a related development, the committee frowned at the 2025 budget performance and 2026 proposals of Nigerian Council of Food Science and Technology (NiCFOST).

The lawmakers decried what they called the low internally generated revenue (IGR) for 2024 and 2025 which stood at about N585,869 and N203,770 respectively.

The committee also queried the sharp rise in the overhead cost component of the agency’s budget which rose from N95.40 million in 2025 to N195.73 million in 2026.

Responding, the Registrar of NiCFOST, Mrs Veronica Nkechi-Eze, explained to the committee that the agency’s only means of generating revenue was through registrations fees and payment of professional dues.

According to Nkechi-Eze, the council charges only N5,000 for registrations and N2,000 for professional dues from 10,000 members.

She, however, said that she did not have any explanation for the sharp rise in the agency’s overhead cost component and that the difference was not part of the proposals submitted to the Budget Office.

The registrar put the total proposal for 2026 as 746.73 million, of which N167.39 million is for personnel cost and 339.93 million for capital expenditure for the fiscal year.

In his ruling, the chairman of the committee stressed the need for further scrutiny, saying that the committee would interface with the agency and come to a final decision. (NAN)