The National Sports Commission (NSC) will defend its 2014 budget at the National Assembly on March 10.
The Chairman, House of Representative Committee on Sports, Hon. Godfrey Gaiya, made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Gaiya said that the shift from March 4 to March10 was to allow for full participation of all committee members.
He said that apart from the NSC, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the National Institute for Sports (NIS) would also defend their budget on the same date.
“There are about 89 standing committees in the house and every member of the house belongs to about eight committees.
“So, to avoid a situation where everybody will be running from one committee to the other, we have shifted our own to March 10.
“This is to enable our members who are in other committees to be present and take part at the session.’’
He further said, “normally, we take them all in one day; the NSC will come first to be followed by all other parastatals under it.
“There will also be NFF and NIS that will appear on the same day,’’ Gaiya said.
“Surely they (NSC, NFF and NIS) have come with their request; it is a proposal from the executive.
“They are the ones that proposed the budget, so when they come, the envelope will be opened and then we ask them the desirability of the funds they are requesting for.
“If we discover that they don’t need as much of what they are requesting for, of course we will slash it.’’
He also said that if it was discovered that they needed more, then we find other ways to increase it, to enable them execute their programmes and bring success to Nigeria,’’ Gaiya said.
The budget defence for sports was earlier fixed for March 4, but shifted to March 10.
