By OHIA ISRAEL
In a review of the Nation’s Budget and why it doesn’t perform even up to 30 percent, DESERT HERALD with inputs from the civil society has unraveled how Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government including the Presidency and the National Assembly inflate their budgets in order to get billions in form of mud money for corrupt public officials.
A cursory look using forensic approach has shown that appropriation by the National Assembly for MDAs and other arms of government indicates that almost all of them use either vague and hesitant sub heads such as drugs and medical supplies, welfare packages, refreshments and meals, foodstuff and catering and Fumigation and cleaning and other things to make way for larceny of public funds.
The same review also showcases how waste and mismanagement in the allocation of the Nation’s funds amounting to hundreds of millions of naira is being unlawfully appropriated for issues such as welfare, security and feeding of senior public officials even after they have been enjoying eccentric stipends and freebies of office.
One of the ways in which these deliberate and coordinated efforts are being used to wad the budgets includes an intentional and synchronized attempt by many ministries whose votes are also uncertain, ludicrous or unfamiliar to appropriation procedure.
According to a source in one of the government agencies; “In some instances the monies are even allocated two times for a parastatal or agency while in some cases also of officially authorized corruption, funds are to be paid for the same projects for several years.
This paper gathered from a source in the National Assembly that “All the budget fraud is perpetrated and sustained by collusion between budget officials in the MDAs, officials of the budget office and its parent ministry of finance as well as the two arms of the National Assembly, which appropriates funds for running the government.”
Looking at the budget appraisal shows a drift whereby the commonest and easiest means of wadding an agency’s appropriation is through food and drink, cuisine, victuals; welfare packages; security vote and medical services and drugs purchases even as a lot of Nigerians go hungry. This paper learnt that many government officials have up to N2 million in this year’s budget for food; so while many Nigerians go hungry, government officials have close to N2 billion in this year’s budget for food and other gastronomic enjoyments. For instance, it is on record that the president and the vice president alone take nearly N693.5 million of these votes. While the President’s office gets nearly N430 million for food and drinks, his deputy’s takes over N264 million. It is also note worthy that the initial amount budgeted for food and drinks in the Presidency run to nearly a billion naira. This was however brought down drastically due to public outcry.
Aside the issue of the President and the Vice President and also their guests, there are other huge funds allocated other public officers and their offices. For example, a total of N118, 241,819 is appropriated for the office of the Head of Service of the Federation for foodstuff, catering meals and the like. Others who got heavy votes for things like food, meals, refreshments and catering include the budget office, N194, 001,021; Ministry of Finance, N66, 969,198; Ministry of Culture and Tourism, N37, 412,183.18 and Niger Delta Ministry, N25, 906,994.
Another way public funds is suspiciously creamed off the budget is “welfare package” for which the National Assembly appropriated nearly N1.5 billion, mostly to the Presidency, ministries and parastatals even as all public servants receive allowances meant to take care of their welfare.
A breakdown also shows that the Presidency alone gets 481,287,340 or close to one third. Other big receivers of welfare packages are Defence Headquarters, N200 million; Ministry of Defence N58,328,409; the Nigeria Police N170,818,524; Niger Delta Ministry N64,871,904; Ministry of Finance, N96,151,968; the budget office, N122,895,000 and office of the Accountant General, N92,734,898.
According to a former director in the federal civil service, who is also acquainted with budgeting process explained that; “welfare packages are legitimate as it is meant to take care of what we call repatriation, burial expenses and the medical expenses of civil servants who fall critically ill and have to be flown abroad for treatment. The repatriation fund in the welfare package dates back to colonial times when British officials, who retired or are returning home, were paid some money which was termed ‘repatriation allowance’. The tradition of including such items in the budget has been maintained even when it is no longer needed.”
Other things covered by the welfare package, he explained, are expenses of the burial rites of deceased civil servants which he said is allowed by law. But he could not quote the law. The source also said the law allows for welfare budget to take care of medical expenses of a civil servant who falls critically ill and has to be taken abroad for treatment, even though as he said from his experience in the service, the welfare package never gets used for this purpose.
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“Although the law allows for budgeting for welfare of civil servants, the truth is that many of them are not even aware of the provision so the money eventually gets pocketed by the big ogas. So it has become a money making avenue for those who know about it,” the source disclosed.
On the issue of security votes, this paper learnt also that many Ministries and Agencies and Parastatals get over N6.5 billion according to the 2012 budget. It is however doubtful whether it is also being used as even ministries and agencies that get support from the police to secure personnel and office buildings have huge funds appropriated for security.
A breakdown of these shows that the Ministry of Aviation, Headquarters, takes the biggest share of N6, 247,666,248 for what it calls “New Security Strategy for Airports”. No further details are given about which airport and what kind of security strategy we are talking about; or if it involves buying some equipment and which type. In this type of issue it is also not possible for anybody to ascertain.
Also other agencies which received this preposterous allocation for security of up to N158, 359,040 is the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC; N104,504,161 goes to the office of the Head of Service and N56,577,744 to the office of the Accountant General. However it is on note that these allocations and their approvals throw up a lot of questions about the integrity of the budget process. For example, why does the NSCDC need over N158 million for security when it also got over N405 million appropriated for the purchase of security equipment?
Also what do the offices of the Head of Service and Accountant General need security votes for? Is it for the office or the person who occupies the office? Why would these two offices require and get over N160 million and other agencies and ministries do not require such a vote? Even the parent ministry of the accountant general’s office which houses it got just N26, 387,765 as security vote.
The bogus money that is seen in the 2012 budget is the N22, 806,460 which was appropriated for the National Theatre for the purchase of typewriters. In this age of technology why would the National Theatre need typewriters?
Additional absurd appropriations in this year’s budget include N300 million approved for the Ministry of Information for a media tour of the states; N41,625, 000 for the purchase of three Discovery 5.0 engine capacity Jeeps for “procurement, monitoring and evaluation” in the ministry of mines and steel; the sum of N17, 232,340 for implementation of a yet to be passed Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, in the petroleum resources ministry and N80 million for a roadmap on the Freedom of Information Act.
More absurd is the approval of N126, 091,750 for “spectacle advances” in the petroleum resources ministry and another N869, 509 for the same purpose in the Ministry of Works; these are indeed seen as pathetic and provocative in the budget. For instance the 2,766,274,637 approved in the budget for “consultancy and conceptual design of Kano Airport terminal building.” Why this when the Kano Airport already has a terminal building? Even if it needs upgrading, would that cost N2.7 billion? How much would be required to build a new one if the design alone costs this much? pundits ask.
Instructively, in 2010, over N602 million was budgeted for remodeling of the terminal building of the same airport. This paper gathered that the Aviation Ministry has most of the absurd and preposterous budget in 2012, taking for instance the N550, 000,000 appropriated for the “consultancy and conceptual design of airports in Lagos, Enugu, Rivers and Cross River. But airports already exist in these places and there is absolutely no need for a new design to be conceived for them. Even more significantly, Enugu airport, mentioned in this particular vote, has an N8.4 billion allocation for its total overhaul. So why seek money for the same purpose in another vote head? pundit further ask.
In 2010 the same airport got N1 billion for the expansion and resurfacing of its runway. Besides, there is another N7, 030,000,000 budgeted for the modernization of the airport terminals in Enugu, Lagos, Rivers and Cross River states; so why the duplication of votes?
There is also the equally fraudulent repeated budgeting of funds for airport construction projects in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Jalingo, Taraba State, Dutse Jigawa State and Abeokuta, Ogun State for several years now. In the 2012 budget, N550,000,000 is appropriated for consultancy and construction of airport terminal in Yenagoa; N378,000,000 for same in Abeokuta, Ogun State and N750,000,000 for Dutse, Jigawa State. In the same vein N120, 000,000 is budgeted for the conversion of the Jalingo airstrip in Jigawa State into an agro airport.
Even when this paper learnt that such monies have also been appropriated for these same projects in previous years, for example, N162, 042,482 was budgeted last year and N1 billion in 2009 for the Abeokuta airport, while N191, 210,128 was budgeted for the Jalingo airstrip project. Even the Yenagoa Airport project received budgetary provision of N500 million as far back as 2008.
While this is happening in the Aviation sector, other sectors are not left out, just as this repetitive budgeting is also seen in the areas of purchasing ICT and computer accessories. It has become a norm that all the MDAs purchase computers every year. In the 2012 budget, purchase of computer hardware and software alone is to gulp over N6 billion. That is in spite of a budgetary provision in 2011 of N4.85 billion. In 2011, the Federal Ministry of Works budgeted N1.8 billion for computers and software, yet in the 2012 budget it still got N95.7 million. The Ministry of Lands and Housing got a total of N551.4 million for computers and software in 2011and still received N727.8 million in 2012.
The ministry of foreign affairs got N200.8 and N207.8 for computer purchase in its 2011 and 2012 budgets respectively.
However, the Presidency is perhaps the guiltiest in perfecting the art of repetitive budgeting in what appears to be an avenue of providing slush funds for government officials. These ridiculous appropriations include for instance a case where the Presidency budgets money every year for rehabilitating the State House, Marina, Lagos and Dodan Barracks, Lagos in spite of the fact that they are hardly ever occupied.
Last year, N628, 640,000 was budgeted for what was termed “outstanding liabilities on partial rehabilitation of SH Marina and Dodan Barracks. This year, again, rehabilitation of the two presidential residences got N500, 571,330 in the budget. In a similar fashion, monies were appropriated for the purchase of kitchen and catering equipment in the Presidential Villa for two consecutive years. In 2011 this vote got a whooping 553,594,442 and in 2012, it still got over N5 million.
For the Presidency, it also appears that the upgrading of facilities is an unending pastime. In 2010, N312, 099,475 was budgeted for the “completion of upgrade of Villa facilities”. But, two years later, more than double that amount, a total of N643, 887,523, was again appropriated for the same purpose. However, the office of the Vice President upkeep takes a very huge drain as it gulps a lot on the nation’s resources just as this paper learnt that the upgrading and furnishing of the vice president’s official resident is costing Nigerian tax payers heavily yearly. In 2011, the vice president’s residence and guest houses received over half a billion in the budget.
The breakdown is “household equipment for vice president’s residence”, N150 million; “furnishing of vice president’s guest house in Asokoro”, N100 million and “acquisition, upgrading and furnishing of VP’s guest house at Aguda” received a whooping N400 million. The vice president also got another N300 million for the purchase of “utility and operational vehicles”.
However, in a brazen and fraudulent manner, the same items were again budgeted for in 2012, clear evidence that slush funds is provided in the budget for the office of the vice president. For, in 2012, the vice president again got N112, 005,600 for household equipment and materials. There is also N207, 168,598 provided for the extension and furnishing of the VP’s lounge in Aguda.
Another outrageous appropriation is the provision of N230, 132, 597 in the budget for acquisition, upgrading and furnishing of the guest house at Aguda even though N400 million was budgeted for same purpose in 2011. The truth really is that the Aguda House is actually the vice president’s official residence for now. It is meant to be the President’s Guest House but is presently occupied by the vice president.
Most painful is the fact that some of these ministries’ allocations are so irresponsible which also smashes every fiscal rule and regulations. Take for instance the Ministry of Agriculture has a vote head “Purchase of Agricultural Equipment” amounting to N26.8 billion. The only detail provided for this huge vote are items like seeds, improved seeds, seed dressings, seedlings, fertilizer, herbicides, small scale processing facilities and investing in agro processing capacity, poultry meat, fish farm and so on, many of them repeated several times in the vote, but the National Assembly never raises questions nor queries this fiscal rascality. In the same ministry, a budget of over N1.4billion is approved for the construction of road. The only explanation given is that N820 million is for the construction of 15 kilometers access roads to six staple processing zones at N15 million per kilometer as there was no clues that was provided concerning exact location of the road construction and making it difficult to track implementation.
The remaining N600 million is provided for the “rehabilitation and consolidation of 200km (kilometers) of existing roads” at N5 million per kilometer. Here, again, no detail is provided about location.
In the Ministry of Water resources most of the appropriations for the river basin offices are so nebulous that it would be practically impossible to determine whether the monies are eventually spent or not. Several hundreds of billions are budgeted for projects in communities for which details are not provided. Besides, many of these projects are duplicated in the budget approved for Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.
For example, the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority has a vote of N650 million for small irrigation in Zamfara West Senatorial District. But there is no information about the location of any of the projects. In the same manner N313, 150,098 is budgeted for South Chad irrigation project by the Chad Basin River Basin Development Authority without any breakdown of costs and location.
However some analysts believe that the executive is to be blamed for the lack of political will to ensure that the budget meets the developmental needs of the people and leaves no room for corruption. “Of course everybody knows of the huge feeding allowance of the president. Everybody knows about the huge sums spent on watering lawns in the Villa. Everybody knows about repetitive demands for the renovation and purchase of guest houses for the vice president. It is unfortunate. The legislature is supposed to check the executive and the executive is somehow also supposed to check the legislature but if there is a conspiracy between the man who is supposed to do the job and the supervisor what happens? The executive and legislature are in an incestuous relationship.”