Governors are to spend billions of naira on foodstuffs, vehicles,
entertainment, maintenance and others in the 2016 fiscal year, Saturday
PUNCH investigation has revealed.
The information is contained in the 2016 budget proposals as presented by many of the state governors.
Deliberations
on the proposals are ongoing at the various state Houses of Assembly
but some of the copies of the proposed budgets exclusively obtained by
our correspondents showed that the governments had budgeted billions of
naira for feeding, travels, vehicles, maintenance, allowances and
others.
For instance, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River
State had presented the 2016 budget proposal of N350bn to the state
House of Assembly.
A copy of the proposed budget obtained by Saturday PUNCH showed that the government budgeted [b]N13.9bn as overhead cost for the office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor.
A
breakdown of the overhead cost showed that N1.4bn was proposed for
entertainment and hospitality in 2016 for the governor under the office
of the Chief of Staff.
A further breakdown under the sub-head
showed that entertainment at meetings would gulp N500m while financial
assistance was put at N900m.[/b]
Under travel and transportation,
a total of N844m has been budgeted with local travel and transport
gulping N832m while foreign trips were put at N12m.
The governor’s office is expected to spend N560m on maintenance repairs and services with plant and generator gulping N100m.
In
the aspect of other services, the governor’s security vote was pegged
at N4bn, while contingency and press/public relations were proposed to
gulp N2.1bn and N610m respectively.
For the office of the deputy governor, overhead cost was put at N225m.
In
Delta State, findings showed that the administration of Governor
Ifeanyi Okowa budgeted N25bn for the running of the Government House.Meanwhile,
the government has been criticised by some residents over some of its
appointments and its pace, which has been described as slow.
Special
Adviser to the Governor on Labour Matters, Mr. Mike Okeme, said the
N25bn budgeted for the Government House would take care of “repairs,
maintenance, logistics, and others.”
Sources said the governor would not likely execute any project because of cash crunch.
A
source said, “The man will not execute any project rather; he will keep
receiving visitors on courtesy calls as nothing is going on in the
state.”
The Plateau State budgeted N8.98bn for the administration of the Government House.Apart
from that, there are some projects the state governor, Mr. Simon
Lalong, plans to execute this year, which include the completion of a
new Government House, renovation and expansion of the state House of
Assembly complex and the renovation and furnishing of the state
secretariat.
The Special Adviser to the State Governor on Media,
Mr. Mark Longyen, identified other projects to be executed under the
budget to include the building and furnishing of a protocol lounge at
the Yakubu Gowon Airport, Heipang.
The appropriation bill
submitted to the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly by the state governor
apportioned N66.86bn to administration, N9.89bn to education and
N7.419bn to health.
Information about the amount budgeted for the
State House, governor’s aides and others could not be ascertained as of
the time of filing this report.
The Commissioner for Information
and Communications, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Aniekan Umana, said, “We need
to look at the budget when the House finishes deliberation on it. As of
now, we do not have a budget, what we have now is a proposal; until the
House of Assembly passes it into law and the governor gives his assent
to it; it is only then we can look at International Statement of
Accounting Standard, which breaks down everything.
The Chairman,
House Committee on Appropriation and Finance, Mr. Usoro Akpanuso, said
work was not yet concluded on the appropriation bill.
The
Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Akan Okon, promised to get back to our
correspondent as he said he was on board a flight to Abuja.
Meanwhile,
the Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has described the
state’s 2016 budget as a budget of misappropriation, saying that the
state governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, appropriated N10.65bn,
representing 9.6 per cent of the total budget to his office.
The party said Oshiomhole’s administration, however, allocated N35m of the N111.50bn budget to the office of his deputy.The
party also accused the state government of neglecting the provision of
water to the majority of the citizens of the state by voting a “paltry”
N100m for the sector; N300m for agriculture; N5bn for security and N400m
for Information and Communications Technology.
Edo State
Chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, who recently spoke to
journalists in Benin while analysing the state’s 2016 budget, also
accused the governor of voting the sum of N3.5bn to the construction of
the Accident and Emergency Ward unit at the Benin Central Hospital.
He,
therefore, described the hospital ward project as a conduit that would
be used to siphon the resources of the state. Funds were also allocated
to the ward in the previous two budgets.
But the Special Adviser
on Media to Governor Oshiomhole, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said that the
budget was only a proposal and “until it becomes a law, it cannot be
commented upon.”
The Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle
Amosun, recently signed the 2016 Appropriation Bill into law following
its passage by the state House of Assembly.
The N200.3bn
appropriation bill allocated N89.91bn for recurrent expenditure, N11bn
for consolidated revenue fund charges including pensions and gratuities,
while N99.291bn was earmarked for capital expenditure.
Efforts
by our correspondent to get the sectoral analysis of the budget at the
Ministry of Budget and Planning were unsuccessful.
A government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ministry had yet to do the breakdown.
The
source said, “We have yet to do the sectoral analysis of the budget. It
is difficult to tell you which sector has what budget for now.”
However,
the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, described the state’s
N171.7bn budget as that of “Sacrifice, Restoration and Change.”
El-Rufal said his administration was able to reduce the 2016 recurrent expenditure by 50 per cent when compared to that of 2014.
He
said Government House expenses for 2016 are projected at N563.7m, a 70
per cent cut from the N2.1bn that the previous government spent in 2014, “the same year that they appropriated only N300m to Ministry of Health for capital projects.”
The
governor had said that the 2016 revenue and expenditure estimates
comprise N109.3bn (64 per cent) capital and N62.4 (36 per cent)
recurrent components, based on a conservative benchmark crude oil price
of about $39.50 per barrel.
El-Rufai said, “The budget
proposals restore the minimum of 60:40 ratios in favour of capital
expenditure. This is in keeping with our agenda to expand access to
education, health care, jobs and security.”A
non-governmental organisation, Policy Alert, has urged the Akwa Ibom
State Government to be transparent in its budget formulation and
implementation.
Its Executive Director, Mr. Larry Ineme, said an
appropriation bill should be an open document and that the legislature
should invite members of the public for inputs.
Ineme, who was
represented by his assistant, Mr. Tijah Akpan, said in Uyo on Friday
that citizens should be able to walk into any budget office and obtain a
copy of the document for a cover price.
Commenting on the
governors’ budgets, a labour consultant and lawyer, Mr. Femi Aborisade,
said it was frightening that the state chief executive officers could
budget huge billions of Naira for items that had no positive impact on
the lives of the people who elected them.
Aborisade said such
items like refreshment, food and sitting allowance, among others, should
be ignored now because the nation’s economy could not support them.
He
said, “Budgeting for refreshments, food, sitting allowances is not
limited to governors. The governors are merely following the bad example
set by the Presidency. In a period of economic stress where the bulk of
the budgets are to be borrowed, budgeting huge amounts for items that
are not necessary reflects the insensitivity and callousness of the
ruling class.
“There should be mass peaceful protests against
budgeting for refreshments where the national minimum wage is not being
paid and several thousands of workers are being sacked.
A poet and social commentator, Mr. Odia Ofeinum, said government budgets in the country had been riddled by corruption.
He
said, “Most of the budgets we have had in the Fourth Republic have 60
per cent of waste and corruption. You can remove 60 per cent of the
budgets and throw it away and they would not have done lesser than they
have done, which tells you that the level of waste in the system
accounts for the hogwash we have called budgets.”
He, however,
said it would be difficult for Nigeria to get out of this situation
“with corrupt persons dictating the affairs of political parties.”
