Buhari: President flushes out 184 officials over budget padding scandal

All the officials involved were said to have been removed from budget duties and assigned to other areas.

President Muhammadu Buhari has flushed 184 top officials out of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) due to the scandal surrounding the padding of the 2016 budget, reports say.

22 of the affected officials are said to be from the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.

All the officials involved were said to have been removed from budget duties and assigned to other areas.

The move comes three weeks after President Buhari sacked the Director General of the budget office, Yahaya Gusau and ordered a “cleansing” of the office.

Buhari has repeatedly vowed to punish persons involved in the scandal which has embarrassed the government.

Buhari also recently revealed that the 2016 budget that is currently being debated at the National Assembly is not the one he presented to the legislative house.

“The culprits will not go unpunished. I have been a military governor, petroleum minister, military Head of State and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund. Never had I heard the words “budget padding,” he said on Tuesday, February 23, 2016, while addressing members of the Nigerian community in Saudi Arabia.

“Our Minister of Budget and National Planning did a great job with his team. The Minister became almost half his size during the time, working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it.”

“What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. It is very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it to go unpunished,” he added.

The budget has been the centre of controversy since it was reported missing from the Assembly premises in January.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki later said that two different versions of the document had been submitted to the legislative house.