FCTA budgets N1.5bn for Mark, Tambuwal, others’ official houses

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has proposed N1.5bn for the design and construction of new residences for the principal officers of the National Assembly in 2014, The amount is contained in the ministry's 2014 budget proposal which also shows that despite Federal Government's promise of stable power supply, the Presidency, ministries, departments and agencies of the government planned to spend N836.6m on the fuelling of their generators .

The budget proposal also revealed that the government had failed to address the concern of the Chief Justice of Nigeria , Justice Mariam Mukhtar, on the financing of the judiciary as the budgetary allocation to the sector for 2014 is lower than that of 2013.

When completed, the residences of the National Assembly's principal officers will be occupied by the Senate President, David Mark; his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu; House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu

Tambuwal, and the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha. The new houses will be built within the Three Arms Zone, Central Area, Abuja. The four lawmakers had rejected official houses built for them by the FCTA at a cost of N3bn, citing insecurity and delay in the provision of infrastructure.

Consequently, the construction of the houses by Julius Berger, at the Maitama Extension, was discontinued.

The FCTA also budgetted N1bn for the construction of the Vice-President's residence and another N1.5bn for
the construction of phase three of the National Assembly. It plans to spend N300m on recreational facilities and N700m on the settlement of outstanding rent for international organisations in Abuja. The FCTA earmarked another N100m for the purchase of undisclosed security equipment out of its total budget of N30.4bn.

The Ministry of Police Affairs also proposes to spend N391,829,200, on research and development and N80m on computer software acquisition. The Nigeria Police Force is to spend N219. 7m on the maintenance of its offices and residential buildings. The police total budget is N292,351,812,085.

The Force also proposes N310,553,170 for the purchase of vehicles in 2014. Air navigation equipment are billed to take N131,058,830 and rehabilitation of police stations, office buildings and barracks , N735,878,855. Maintenance of motor vehicles by the police will cost N463,935,012 while 'other maintenance services' are billed to gulp N238,861,716 . Uniforms and clothings will cost N964,694,529.

The N836.6m proposed for the fuelling of generators is striking when considered from the standpoint of government's promise that from the first quarter of 2014, Nigerians will start reaping the fruits of the

privatisation of the power sector. Specifically, President Goodluck Jonathan had while inaugurating the Phase II 500 megawatt Omotosho National Integrated Power Project Plant in Ondo State two months ago, promised a reasonable stable power supply in the country by the middle of 2014.

He added that the Federal Government was targeting 4,700MW from 10 NIPPs, which he said would be completed before the end of the first quarter of 2014.

According to him, the 10 NIPPS will be handed over to the private sector next year after completion and inauguration. But an analysis of the budget proposal showed that the Ministry of Finance has the highest share of a projected expenditure of N76.5m on fuelling generators while the police formation and command, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Health followed with N71.3m, N56.16m and N47.62m respectively.

Presidency has a budget of N33.47m; Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, N16.48m; Youth Development, N1.81m; Police Affairs, N16.5m; Women Affairs, N901,452; Agriculture, N5.57m; Water Resources, N16.45m; Auditor -General for the Federation N11.79m and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission N29.05m.

Others ministries are Defence (Army, Airforce, Navy), N30m; Education, N36.92m; Trade and Investment, N20.8m; Information, N13.85m; Communication and Technology, N1.27m; and Interior, N20.75m. Office of Head of Service has N40m; Justice, N28. 34m, Labour and Productivity, N2.79m; Science and Technology, N3.51m; Works, N25.05m; Lands and Housing, N45.55m; and Mines and Steel Development N6m. The rest are Environment, N13.16m; Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, N2.637m; National Planning Commission, N21m; National Sports Commission, N17.12m; Office of the National Security Adviser, N8.78m; Niger Delta, N16.85m; Ministry of Special Duties, N2.31m; Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, N15.45m; and National Population Commission, N22.53m Similarly, Code of conduct Bureau had a budget of N6.07m for generator fuelling; Code of Conduct Tribunal N3.01m; Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, N20.05m; Federal Civil Service Commission, N18.8m; Police Service Commission, N4.39m; and Federal Character commission N5.92m. Curiously, three ministries – Power, Aviation and Transpot – and the National Salaries and Wages Commission, had no budgetary provision for the fuelling of their plants and generators.

PUNCH.