A report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has revealed that a total of N512,365,165,877 from frivolous items passed in the 2024 appropriation budget.
The amount is spread across more than 24 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and can be saved from proper oversight by the Legislatures.
In November 2023, President Bola Tinubu presented N27.5 trillion to the Joint National Assembly as the proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year. However, upon scrutiny by the Assembly, the budget was increased to N28.7 trillion and signed by the president on January 1, 2024.
Read Also:
- Amidst budget padding allegation: Senate suspends Ningi for 3 months
- FG removes 20 professional bodies with N27.72bn expenditure from 2024 budget
- Presidency, 45 MDAs to spend N3.3trn on capital projects in proposed 2024 budget
However, CSJ noted that there are so many projects that are vaguely described and without location. Recently, the Senate suspended a Sentor, Abdul Ningi, a senator, for three months over the allegation he brought that the National Assembly padded the 2024 budget.
Findings by CSJ from the budget showed that the State House and Presidency vote is suffused with bloated routine maintenance, renovation and repair work, and purchase of SUVs and vehicles in the billions of naira.
| MDA | Amount (N) |
| STATE HOUSE | 22,313,017,579 |
| OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE PRESIDENT | 15,000,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF BUDGET AND ECONOMIC PLANNING – HQTRS | 3,339,843,000 |
| PRESIDENTIAL AIR FLEETS (STATE HOUSE) | 10,250,000,000 |
| SERVICE WIDE VOTE | 358,510,543,962 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION | 10,000,000,000 |
| NATIONAL SOCIAL INVESTMENT OFFICE | 983,122,210 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF SPECIAL DUTIES & INTER – GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS HQTRS | 763,863,500 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY | 44,853,489,924 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND DIGITAL ECONOMY HQTRS | 814,316,746 |
| NATIONAL AGENCY FOR THE CONTROL OF AIDS (NACA) | 429,112,843 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF SOLID MINERALS DEVELOPMENT – HQTRS | 7,929,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES – HQTRS | 16,008,911,498 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT – HQTRS | 2,175,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF AVIATION AND AEROSPACE DEVELOPMENT – HQTRS | 2,500,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF POWER -HQTRS | 1,555,000,025 |
| NATIONAL RURAL ELECTRIFICATION AGENCY | 6,970,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF NIGER DELTA HQTRS | 3,471,459,974 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF SPORTS DEVELOPMENT – HQTRS | 300,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WOMEN AFFAIRS – HQTRS | 209,975,430 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT HEADQUARTERS | 112,968,269 |
| SMEDAN – H/QTRS | 3,740,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE – HQTRS | 220,000,000 |
| FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WORKS | 729,857,663 |
Also, the vote of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is suffused with projects that have no locations, class of beneficiaries and sometimes no clear deliverables. This is the case in over 90 per cent of the projects.
The ICIR findings from the report showed that over N358 billion can be saved from the Service Wild Votes; N10 billion from the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and N2.5 billion from the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development among others.
The ICIR reported that Tinubu approved the implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye report, which recommended scrapping and merging Federal Government agencies. Going by the approval, if implemented, the Federal Government’s 263 statutory agencies as of 2012 could be reduced to 161, making 102 heads of those agencies lose their jobs.
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at jameskennyogunyale@gmail or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames | LinkedIn: Kehinde Ogunyale