SAN FRANCISCO, October 27, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change is to investigate the utilisation of funds donated to the Department of Climate Change in the Ministry of Environment by international partners and agencies.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Eziuche Ubani, who disclosed this in Abuja after an oversight visit to the department, also expressed shock that the Department of Climate Change which was carved out from the ministry of Environment operates from a make-shift accommodation without toilets and other public utility.
Ubani said the committee has to carry out the investigation in order to forestall a situation where the donors would visit the department and withdraw their assistance due to poor management of the funds they have been giving.
According to him, “Donors are supposed to be funding that department and I’m sure they receive money from donors and I’m sure they would be disappointed if they came to see where they work from. That is the very worrisome part of it and we are going to take utmost efforts to the ministry to respond to that. They need to be able to get standard accommodation for them, anything less than that would be unacceptable.
“All they talk about climate change is just pretense because even if donors come to see where this people are working from, like a matchbox for forty-something staff crammed in that place with no public facility, no toilets and nothing, they would be very disappointed.”
He lamented that “at a time when nations are taking the fight against climate change seriously, our own does not think it is a priority.
“That is the first the committee is visiting the department since it was taken away from just an office in the ministry. It was very disappointing and that says something about the kind of priorities that we have. If it is a department of another ministry, it is supposed to be growing, aware of its responsibilities and what is going on around the world and the challenges that we have. But obviously, that is not a priority for this ministry.”
Earlier, the director of the department, Dr. Samuel Adejuwon, informed the committee that the department with its 45 staff was evicted from their former building after they paid to offset their N12 m accommodation payment backlog and was moved to a part of the Ministry of Environment’s library.
By Saint Mugaga, Abuja
