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Outrage over 2013 Budget: Find Out how many Millions the President, Vice President & Ministries would Spend on Food & Refreshments in 2013!

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President Goodluck Jonathan unveiled a N4.93 trillion budget to the National Assembly for the 2013 fiscal year only last week and it is already causing some heated debates across the country.

This is particularly in the area of expenses on food, refreshment and welfare for the state house headquarters, the Vice President and other ministries. Nigerians have complained that the millions of naira allocated to welfare is simply outrageous. For instance, the state house headquarters is to spend N406, 738,969 to purchase food stuff in 2013. This puts the amount at N1,114,353.34 daily on food stuff. Similarly, the Vice President Namadi Sambo would spend N112,500,000 to purchase food in 2013 which puts the amount at N308,219.18 to be spent daily on food.

Here is a breakdown of some budgetary allocations on food, welfare, fueling and maintenance of generators as reported by Vanguard:

State House Headquarters will in 2013 spend N327,154,931 on refreshment and meals and N406, 738,969 to purchase food stuff, just as Vice President Namadi Sambo would spend N112,500,000 to purchase food for the 2013 fiscal year.

According to the 2013 budget details, to fuel generators in the State House headquarters, the Presidency will spend N72,510,832 while N553, 056,411 will be for honorarium and sitting allowance.

The total allocation to the Presidency stands at N35,545,673,132, with total personnel put at N11,476,593,929; total overhead is N11,569,079,204, with total recurrent put at N23,045,673,132 and total capital stands at N12,500,000,000.

According to the budget breakdown, Vice President Sambo will spend N123,405,499 on refreshment and N7,020,750 to purchase cooking gas, just as State House headquarters plans to spend N14,471,035,290, with N1,510,196,776 on personnel; N7,476,942,494 as overhead, while total recurrent stands at N8,987,137,260 and total capital is N5,483,896,030.

The State House headquarters also plans to spend N195,066,223 on welfare packages and N6,400,000 for cooking gas.

According to the budget breakdown, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which plans to spend N9,328,155,023 in the year 2013, will purchase a land for N2,000,000,000, while its uniforms and other clothing will gulp N24,160,048; maintenance of generators will cost N8,629,595, clearing and fumigation will cost N5,370,011; Honorarium and sitting allowance will take N17,087,106 and to fuel vehicles, the Commission plans to spend N31,976,146 while fuelling generators will cost N74,341,739.

Also in the 2013 budget breakdown, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison- Madueke, plans to spend N60,834,291,536 this year, just as water pollution prevention and control would gulp N1,200,731,099, with N22,525,507 for the fuelling of generators and N25,036,076 to maintain the generators.

According to the breakdown, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources will spend N50,583,648,005 as personnel cost, N1,850,643,531 as overhead, N52,334,291,536 for recurrent and N8,500,000,000 as total capital.

Also, the Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, plans to spend N26,226,833 on refreshment and meals while security will gulp N305,000,889, just as the total allocation to the ministry for the year 2013 stands at N63,392,377,074, with N913,207,171 for personnel cost, overhead cost is N1,475,169,903; total recurrent is N2,392,377,074 and N61,000,000 as total capital estimate.

The ministry also plans to spend N24,955,661 to fuel vehicles, N21,015,293 to fuel generators and honorarium and sitting allowance will be N44,363,766.

The amount to be spent on fueling and maintaining generators is particularly noteworthy:

Petroleum Resources: N25,036,293 for maintenance and 22,525,507 for fueling.
EFCC: 8,629,595 for maintenance, 74,341,739 for fueling.
Niger Delta: 21,015,293 for fueling.
State House: 72,510,832 for fueling.
Total = N224,059,259.

Although it is expected that at the end of the year (2013) all the unspent funds should be returned to treasury, it still doesn’t excuse the fact that these amounts are simply outrageous. Or am I the only one that thinks so?

Adeola Adeyemo is a graduate of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from University of Lagos. However, her passion is writing and she worked as a reporter with NEXT Newspaper. She believes that anything can be written about; anything can be a story depending on the angle it is seen from and the writer's imagination. When she is not writing news or feature articles, she slips into her fantasies and creates interesting fiction pieces. She blogs at www.deolascope.blogspot.com

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