By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North & Henry Umoru
ABUJA— The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, plans to spend N1,098,296,979 on sitting allowances and honorarium and another N43,515,655 on refreshment and meals next year.
ABUJA— The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, plans to spend N1,098,296,979 on sitting allowances and honorarium and another N43,515,655 on refreshment and meals next year.
The Office of the Minister also estimates that it would expend N43,381,673 million on cleaning and fumigation, just as it planned that security services would gulp a total of N36,829,446 million.
These figures are contained in details of the 2013 budget, which President Goodluck Jonathan presented to the National Assembly last Thursday.
The Ministry of Finance, which has a total allocation of N14,759,952, 110, will also spend N6,056,366,976 on personnel, N5,429,969,154 as overhead cost; N11,486,336,130 as total recurrent and N3,273,615,980 for capital.
According to the budget breakdown, the Ministry of Finance plans to spend N153, 922, 307 on local travels, N170, 922, 307 on international travels while N68,613,133 will be for local training and N68,883,133 on international training.
N64,768,973 to fuel generators
In the same vein, the ministry is to spend N64,768,973 on the fuelling of its generators though it has set aside another sum of N38,205,019 for the payment of electricity bills.
Over one billion naira has also been set aside by the same ministry for the procurement of security equipment and N400 million for the repairs and rehabilitation of office buildings, which were not specified in the budget.
The ministry also intends to spend N462 more than million on research and development and another N111 million on the acquisition of computer software within the financial year.
NSA will utilise N25.4bn
A further breakdown of the appropriation document indicates that the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA will utilise N25.4 billion, while N40 billion is appropriated to the National Intelligence Agency, NIA. Similarly, the Directorate of State Security Service, SSS, will expend N43. 2 billion while the Presidential Air Fleet will make use of N7.5 billion within the fiscal year.
In the same breadth, the government proposes to spend N520,540,876 for the implementation of the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, which is still pending in the National Assembly. It was reworked and sent back to the lawmakers by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke, early this year after the previous version was not assented to by the Executive. Within the year, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources plans to hire a seven-seater helicopter for the sum of N200 million to inspect and monitor offshore terminals in the country.
It also plans to use another N200 million, within the period, to acquire gas flaredown monitoring and pipeline surveillance facilities to be used in the Niger Delta, where oil exploration takes place daily.
SGF to spend N17,256,704 on refreshment
The office of the Secretary to the Federal Government will also spend N17,256,704 for refreshments and meals within the year.
In the budget breakdown, office of the Head of Service of the federation will next year spend N30,000,000 to purchase fire fighting equipment while teaching and learning equipment will gulp N13,000,000.
The office has a total allocation of N7,713,308, 382, with N2,509,000,000 voted for capital expenditure, while recurrent has N5,204,308,603 and total overhead is put at N1,529,324,603.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs also plans to spend N70,201,724,387 with N22,978,212,832 going for personnel, N23,516,908, 685 for overhead, recurrent N46,495,121,517 and capital N23,706,602,870.
Also, the country’s embassy in London will spend N1,282,632,245; Ottawa N4,379, 185,951; Washington, N91,138,564; Madrib, N490,765,796; Tehran N243,348,683; and Tel-Aviv(CP) N21,343,418.
