Kwara budgets N190m to fuel Govt House vehicles, generators in 2020, Group alleges

Baba Rahman just event online

In its continued efforts to ensure public transparency and accountability in governance in Kwara State, a non governmental organization, Brain Builders International monitored activities leading to the presentation, defence and eventual approval of the Kwara 2020 budget, christianed ‘Budget of Reconstruction and Reformation.’
This is part of the organization’s overall objective of advocating for good governance and civic education in Nigeria, according to BBI Executive Director, Olasupo Abideen.

It will be recalled that on Thursday, 30 January, 2020, the Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq signed the 2020 Appropriation Bill into law. The budget, according to the Governor, is designed to “rebuild the state in a manner that uplifts people from poverty and addresses infrastructural deficit. ”
On his part, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Yakubu Danladi described it as “a budget of hope.”
The BBI Executive Director commended the Assembly led by the young and vibrant Speaker for the scrunity and prompt passage of budget, which he said, gives a ray of hope for ordinary Kwarans particularly young people of the State.
He, however, noted that there were some obscure line items in the approved budget, which he said, could be difficult for interested individuals or advocacy groups to track due to lack of details.

“For instance, the itemline of N1.6bn under the House of Assembly was not explained and we raised objection to it during the budget defence but unfortunately, our concern wasn’t addressed by the legislators before approving the budget.
“Also, a whooping sum of N1.2billion was budgeted for the purchase of vehicles for all political office holders. While we believe that officeholders are entitled to official cars, we however, hold that this amount is outrageous and uncalled for, considering the current financial status of the State.
“A government complaining of paucity of funds should not be caught allocating such huge amount of funds to purchase of cars. We believe this fund could be channeled to more meaningful projects that will better the lives of the citizenry such as building healthcare centres in different parts of the State.
“We acknowledge the reduction of the budget for the Ministry of Energy from N401million to N300m by the Assembly, with a claim that the Ministry will be responsible for the electricity bills of other MDAs. But surprisingly, in the same budget, funds were also allocated for some MDAs to cater for their electricity bills. This definitely raises some concerns.
“Meanwhile, we commend the House for reducing the allocation for fueling of Government House vehicles, plant and generator from proposed N220million to N190million. We, however, hold that this amount is still on the high. N190m for fuelling is rather too high.
“Also, the budget of Harmony Holdings was increased from the proposed N100m to 200m by the House, without any concrete explanation for the 100 per cent raise of the Holdings budget. We also believe that budgetary allocation to Harmony Holdings should be treated as a loan facility as the organization is run as a private entity. And there is also no available record that the Holdings is remitting any money into the state coffers. We believe that these funds (N100m) could have been injected into sectors that will improve the state economy.

On page 35 of the approved budget, we observed that the sum of N250m was budgeted for ‘Honorarium and Sitting Allowance’ and domiciled under the Governor’s Office budget. One is left to wonder who will be collecting money for honorarium and sitting allowance inside Government House. Do we now have another Assembly inside the Government House?
Similarly, on page 38 of the approved budget, we noted that a huge sum of N360m was budgeted for ‘external auditor consulting’. This is way higher than allocation to some agencies like the Kwara Primary Healthcare Development Agency.
It is also observed that the Appropriation Law is missing a key reference number as appropriate in Law. It should have been tagged ‘Law No. 1 of 2020’, and we feel that the omission may invalidate the law in reference. The proper tagging is pertinent for easy reference of the law, non-duplicity of the law with different contents but the same citation, and for quality legislative process, among others.
Finally, the governor said he has saved the sum of N7bn which was included in the budget proposal. However, during the KwaraTracka program, the Governor said the figure was N8bn. This change was not effected or included in the approved budget. We also observed that a projected sum of N5bn from the Federal Government under the Ecological and Stabilisation Fund was included in the capital receipt; a fund which is not feasible. If this fund does not come, how will the government source for alternative?
These are core issues with the budget and we hope that the state government does better in subsequent budgeting processes and fill these obvious gaps. We, therefore, recommend the following:
1. The principles of budgeting should be applied by giving adequate appropriation to top government priorities.
2. Proper market surveys are critical to keeping tabs on economic indicators and should be fully utilized during budget preparation.
3. Revenue projections should be feasible and based on reasonable performance level.
4. MDAs should be monitored to ensure coordination and cooperation in projecting expenditures.
5. The government should ensure that all relevant data are available for the preparation of the budget.
6. Every ministry must submit their audited report as and when due.
Lastly, BBI commends every member of our organization and volunteers who sacrificed their time and resources to work on this important project, which is aimed at deepening governance in the State and ensuring transparency and accountability. Special mention goes to Mr Oladimeji Sulaiman, a public and financial analyst with TallWallet Consults, Abuja, Akande Olanrewaju Nafiu, Bakare Haneef Akinsola, Akinyemi Muhammed, Bello Lukman, Sanni Alausa and Raji Khalid Olatunji. We really appreciate your efforts.

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