-As Senate threatens to remove COREN from federal budget
More facts have emerged as to why the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has not been able to remit any money to the Federation Account since the exit of the immediate past Registrar left office on March 15th,2022.
This is as the Senate Committee on Works has threatened to remove the agency from the 2023 budget.
According to a Council member who want to remain anonymous “the President of COREN and Registrar and immediate past president of COREN and a past Registrar of COREN who left office on the 15 of March 2019 travelled to Glasgow in July 2022. The President of COREN and his family just returned from U S A. As I am writing this the President the Registrar and the immediate past President and the past that left office in March 15 2019 are abroad now in Ethiopia to return this weekend. All these trips are funded with money from COREN. How can COREN make remmitance to Federation Account.
“That is not a priority to the President of COREN. He controls the Registrar to the extent that he, the Registrar can not breathe and threatens him with removal if he as much as coughs. Money generated in COREN is being siphoned by the President of COREN with the help of the deputy director Finance and Admin one Mr Acho Boniface” he added.
He stated that “no remmitance has been made to the Federation Account since the immediate past Registrar left office on 15th of March 2022.The new Registrar is not allowed to work by the President of COREN. They are not bothered because they believe in settling the committee on works with some thousands of dollars and it will be business as usual. The President of COREN is the problem of COREN. He is abroad with the same group of men squandering the resources of COREN with reckless abandon. No remmitance has been made to Federation Account since Engr Prof Joseph Odigure left office on the 15 of March 2022.
“The new Registrar has no control and does not have any evidence of remmitance to Federation Account because COREN has not remmitted any money. The President of COREN is averse to remmitance of any money to Federation Account. COREN is his property and everything coming out of COREN belongs to him. He is well connected and so nothing will happen.
Specifically, this is not good news for the COREN as the Senate Committee on Works has threatened to remove the professional body from benefiting from the annual federal budget because the organization is seen as condict pipe where government money is siphoned.
The Senate Committee on Works headed by Senator Adamu Aleiro also vowed to give the professional body a zero allocation in the 2023 fiscal year.
Trouble started when the Registrar of COREN Engr. Ademola Bello was asked to defend how the 2022 budget allocation was utilised as well as the achievements of COREN in the year under review but failed the expectations of the lawmakers who are members of the Works Committee.
Engr. Bello had told the committee that his organization is tackling the menace of incessant building collapse across the country and that investigations conducted so far on collapsed buildings including that of 21 storey building in Lekki in Lagos state have shown that some COREN members are culpable and the names of those involved in professional misconduct would soon be forwarded to the Inspector General of Police for prosecution.
Engr. Bello also explained that COREN was given a sum of N2.4 billion for the 2022 fiscal year and a whooping sum of N1.2 billion was spent to organise Annual Conference.
He also told the committee members that the personnel cost in the 2023 budget was increased by N200 million because COREN is planning to have its offices in 36 states of the federation in 2023.
When he was asked by Senator Aliero how much the COREN remitted to the federation account, Engr. Bello’s answer was N45 million.
The lawmakers were not happy about the poor remittance and the COREN officials were later directed produce evidence of remittance to the federation accounts among others.
However a member of the committee, Senator George Sekibo said there is no justification to continue to place COREN under the federal budget as it can stand alone as a professional body like Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), as well as other professional bodies.
He stressed that ” how can COREN spend about N1.2 billion naira on annual conference and remit just N45 million into the federation accounts? Government is in need of money to provide infrastructure to Nigerians. COREN should be made to stand as a professional body and stay out of money from the government”. Senator Sekibo said
The chairman of the Works Committee therefore suspended further consideration of COREN’s budget and directed COREN Registrar to provide evidence of remittance to the federation accounts.