House Committee on Culture examines NGA accounts

This was disclosed Thursday when the committee visited the NGA as part of its oversight function. “We will be looking at how you have spent Nigeria’s money allocated to you last year. We will also evaluate your contributions to the growth of visual art industry in Nigeria and your agenda for 2012,” Hon ben Nwankwor, […]

This was disclosed Thursday when the committee visited the NGA as part of its oversight function.

“We will be looking at how you have spent Nigeria’s money allocated to you last year. We will also evaluate your contributions to the growth of visual art industry in Nigeria and your agenda for 2012,” Hon ben Nwankwor, leader of the delegation said.

“We are out to save money from recurrent to capital budget. Our knife is sharp enough to know where to cut from and where to add. We are out to make Nigerians feel the impact of art and culture in the overall development of the country’s economy,” he added.

The Chairman also warned that the committee might be forced to reduce the allocation of some parastatals and add to others on discovering  that anyone was performing below expectations.

The Director General of the NGA, Dr. Abdullahi Muku, who led a team of directors to recieve the committee, blamed the NGA’s poor performance and the agency’s inability to execute most of its programmes including the African Regional Summit and Exhibition of Visual Art (ARESUWA) on poor budgetary allocations particularly the poor implementation of the 2011 allocation.

He said the agency has plans to increase the number of its oustations from 17 to 28, thereby creating more employment oppurtunities. This, the DG said, will help take youths off the street.

After thorough inspection of the Agency’s financial records, the Chairman opined that it has not performed poorly considering its meagre allocation in 2011 fiscal year.