The Senate Committee on Petroleum has rejected Department of Petroleum Resources’ (DPR) proposal of N355 million for foreign trips in the 2018 fiscal year.
The committee rejected the proposal when the officials of DPR appeared before it to defend the department’s 2018 budget.
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Tayo Alasoadura, vowed that the committee would reduce the estimates when sending it to plenary for approval.
“your proposed figure for foreign trips in the 2018 fiscal year is too high and must be drastically reduced before it is presented to the senate for approval,” he said.
“Even the N60.2 million proposed for local trips in terms of monitoring is also on the high side and may also be reviewed downward.”
Also, the committee chairman observed that the renovation of DPR Head Office in Victoria Island, Lagos, already rolled over to 2018 was becoming a reoccurring decimal in the agency’s yearly budgetary proposals.