Allocations For Frivolous Items Of Expenditure, N159m To Be Spend

More allocations for frivolous items of expenditure have continued to emerge from the details of the 2014 budget awaiting the approval of the National Assembly.

The budget document, which was examined by Vanguard, revealed that most of the items appropriated by the government would not have any direct or indirect benefit for the citizenry.
The budget, if passed as it is, would free N159 million for the officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, to travel within and outside the country and also make available N38 million for fuelling the cars in its fleet.

Similarly, the budget makes a generous provision of N78 million for the Ministry of Police Affairs to monitor and evaluate the 2014 capital projects and the defence of the budget before lawmakers.
The budget details also showed that the same ministry plans to spend N30.7 million for fuelling its vehicles, while N4.3 million has been earmarked for meals and refreshments.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, will get N283.6 million to be able to hire lawyers for its anti-graft cases nationwide.

The document showed that EFCC might not be able to complete its ambitious high-rise building in Abuja, which has virtually been abandoned due to paucity of funds.

Hope of getting a large envelope for the project waned last night, as it was discovered that N1.4 billion was earmarked for the commission’s capital projects nationwide.
The headquarters project still requires a large chunk of resources to complete and furnish to enable the agency to move its offices scattered all over the FCT to one location for proper coordination and control.

That notwithstanding, the commission still got a generous vote of N27 million for meals and honorarium for the year.
The Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, was allocated N28 million for sitting allowances, meals and refreshments.
The National Assembly is expected to begin the budget consideration on January 14, 2014, when they resumed from Christmas break.

This passage of the current budget did not come easy due to irreconcilable differences between the lawmakers and the Presidency over oil benchmark and the controversial constituency projects management.
At the end, the management of constituency projects has been taken away from the lawmakers and given to the Ministry of Special Duties.