EXPOSED: The Okonjo-Iweala's Scandalous 2014 Budget
Apparently, our State House functions as an integrated town that must have every facility within. After all it has its own church (chapel) and mosque andeven a zoo where N8m would be spent to upgrade and maintain it and an additional sum of N14.5m would be spent to purchase two beasts, all for the pleasure of its privileged patrons. And this is after we budgeted N7.5m for wildlife conservation in the State House last year. [Pure MADNESS]!
Still in the State House,there is plan to spend N76.3m to purchase 'crested cutlery, flatware and glassware'. Now, isn't that too much to spend on those items, for a State House that has existed for years and been playing host to several dinners? We don't dispose of dinnerware on a yearly basis, do we?
General maintenance in the State House will cost N1.19b of which N138.9 will go for motor vehicle and transport equipment maintenance, N907m for office and residential building maintenance; N17.4m for office furniture maintenance and N40m to maintain office and IT equipment (that comes to spending more than N3m each month to maintain office and IT equipment in the office of the president).
Recalling that only last year, we budgeted N90.9m for this item, it is bewildering why we plan to spend so much this year.Yet, this is aside N188.3m to be spent on office stationery and computer consumables (for which we budgeted N507.9m last year).
It is hoped this exposé will help our parliamentarians make informed decisions when considering the budget:
One way to look at the budget is to consider what each of the heads and figures allocated means for our country and its development. Here are a few of those queries.
The first observation to make is that the budget proposal allocates 76.3% to recurrent expenditure and just 23.7% to capital expenditure.One interpretation of this is that the budget is meant to just keep the country and its institutions running with nothing spectacular to show for. A budget focused on massive development of infrastructure would assign more to capital rather than to recurrent which covers personnel and overhead costs.
About 42 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) will spend more on their recurrent than on capital and in some instances the difference is so huge.Here are a few cases:
The Ministry of Interior which is expected to spend N144.7b in recurrent and just N6.29b on capital; Police formation and commands, N285.5b and N6.79b; Education including UBEC, N443.9b and N49.5b and Health, N216.4b and N46.3b.
