2016 Budget: Office Of The Secretary To The Government Of The Federation Appropriation Bill By Saatah Nubari

In the ninth part of the #SaatahBudgetSeries, I will take a look at the budget for some government institutions such as the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Infrastructure Concessionary Regulatory Commission, and the Police Service Commission. But my main focus for today will be on the budget for the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) and the institutions under it.

The total budget for the Code of Conduct Tribunal is 784,319,234; 434,319,234 is for “Recurrent Expenditure” while 350,000,000 is for “Capital Expenditure.”

CODE OF CONDUCT TRIBUNAL

The Code of Conduct Tribunal proposes to spend its entire “Capital Expenditure” budget, all 350,000,000 of it, on the “Construction/Provision of Office Buildings.” A further look at the line item shows that the 350,000,000 will in fact, be spent on the “Execution of Bench Warrants” and not really on the “Construction/Provision of Office Buildings.” What I find amusing here is that the Code of Conduct Tribunal which for the past three years, if not more, never budgeted for the “Execution of Bench Warrants,” has all of a sudden, deemed it a necessity to budget for the said item. I can only remember one bench warrant the Code of Conduct Tribunal “served” in 2015, and that was in the case which involved the Senate President, Bukola Saraki. I am looking forward to seeing the Code of Conduct Tribunal spending at least 1,000,000 every single day for the duration of the year for the “Execution of Bench Warrants.” Anything short of this will not be accepted.

INFRASTRUCTURE CONCESSIONARY REGULATORY COMMSSION

This is actually the first time I am reading about this particular institution. They have a total budget of 897,835,007; 858,135,007 is for “Recurrent Expenditure” while 39,700,000 is for “Capital Expenditure.”

The first thing I noticed about this institution is that they will be spending 13,472,956 on “Telephone Charges.” That is almost half of what the entire State House HQTRS will spend on the same item. They must talk a lot there.

They also have a budget for “International Training” worth 8,019,617 but have no provision for “International Travel: Training.”

The “Honorarium/Sitting Allowance” for the Infrastructure Concessionary Regulatory Commission put at 21,652,966 is almost 250% more than the “Honorarium/Sitting Allowance” for the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which is put at 9,813,643.

POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION

The Police Service Commission has a total budget of 980,705,292; 700,450,292 is for “Recurrent Expenditure” while 280,255,000 is for “Capital Expenditure.”

This particular budget looks clean and without blemish till you come across “Utility Vehicles” with a budget of 97,440,000. Now, that should be all right? But no, it is not. We have a separate budget for yet another “Utility Vehicles,” this time with a budget of 4,440,000. Why the duplicity?

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION

As usual, I will first lay out the various agencies/institutions which can be found under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation: Secretary to the Government of the Federation HQTRS, National Poverty Eradication Program, National Commission for Refugees,  Lagos Liaison Office, National Identity Management Commission, National Merit Award, Federal Road Safety Commission, Presidential Advisory Committee, New Partnership for African Development, National Action Committee on AIDS, National Pension Commission, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission, National Lottery Trust Fund, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Servicom, Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reforms, National Boundary Commission HQTRS, and Border Communities Development Commission.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has a total budget of 62,358,813,315; 45,379,169,534 is for “Recurrent Expenditure” while 16,979,643,781 is for “Capital Expenditure.”
The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has a budget of 73,598,961 for “Electricity Charges,” that is almost 50% more than what the State House HQTRS will spend on that same item, 50,369,359.

792,436,891 is the amount budgeted for “Honorarium/Sitting Allowance.” That is more than a 1200% increase from the 2014 and 2015 budget for the same item which was put at 65,944,587 and 60,832,518 respectively.  Alternatively, it is more than double the “Honorarium/Sitting Allowance” for the President, which is put at 307,644,034 and over 8000% more than the “Honorarium/Sitting Allowance” for the Vice President.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation also budgeted 396,795,997 for the “Rehabilitation/Repairs-Electricity.” What I want you to take into consideration at this point is that the National Rural Electrification Agency will spend that same amount to electrify  18 communities; 15 communities in Lagos (236,422,269) and 3 communities in the FCT (122,706,725).

1,710,322,610 will be spent on the “Procurement and Installation of Security System.” “Security” and “Research and Development” seems to be the guise to appropriate money whose use will be difficult to question. What kind of “Security System” will cost this much to procure and install when we are not talking about our Army, Navy, Airforce or any of our intelligence agencies?

400,190,000 will be spent on the “Affairs of Former Heads of State.” I think it is time we stop paying/ rewarding people who came to power through the barrel of the gun. We should stop rewarding the men in uniform who wasted this country’s resources and left us bare. It is actually stupid that we pay/sustain people who shot their way to power while preaching against it.

I find it baffling that the National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP), an agency created to reduce extreme poverty in Nigeria, with a total budget of 1,240,431,431, has nothing for “Capital Expenditure.” So many institutions like these exist in Nigeria whose main job is to consume, pay workers, and not produce. We can really do without these institutions.

The National Commission for Refugees has a budget of 5,869,848 for “International Training,” and as usual, there is no budget for “International Travel: Training.” How do they undertake these “International Training” without travelling? It really beats me.

The Lagos Liaison Office with a budget of 66,302,270 has no provision for “Salaries and Wages.” This is rather odd. Is it that they do not have workers or it is a “Ghost institution” just like we have “Ghost workers” or  do they have workers who are all volunteers? Whichever way you look at it, the budget for the Lagos Liaison Office is a red flag.

The Federal Road Safety Commission also has a budget for “International Training” put at 4,738,198 but does not have any provision for “International Travel: Training.”

The Federal Road Safety Commission has a budget of 108,000,000, to “Purchase Megaphones for Corps Public Enlightenment Activities.” I searched for the words to describe how myopic this particular spending is, but I am yet to get the right words.
830,000,000 is budgeted for the “Purchase of Residential Buildings” by the Federal Road Safety Commission.

The Presidential Advisory Committee has a total budget of 8,954,822, and almost every item in the budget has 437,278 appropriated for it. This means one thing to me; that this particular institution does not need this budget to function, and that its entire budget will most definitely end up in someone’s personal bank account. I do not see a need for this particular committee when the President has a horde of Special Advisers who earn salaries.

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria will spend 500,000,000 on the “Rehabilitation of Reception Centre” while the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission will spend 610,000,000 on “Off-shore States Activities.”   It seems there was no fear of God when they budgeted for these items!

The National Lottery Trust Fund budgeted 500,600,000 for the “Acquisition of Land for Office Building.” With this amount, I am sure they can buy enough land to also build a Lottery University if they wish. Whichever way you look at it, the National Lottery Trust Fund just hit a jackpot at the expense of Nigerians, through the National budget.

The National Lottery Regulatory Commission budgeted 347,046,223 for the “Nationwide NLRC Capacity Building through Training.” What “Capacity building” are we talking about here, gambling capacity? Are these people okay at all?

I was beginning to think the people at the National Lottery Regulatory Commission were not really okay after all, when I saw that they budgeted 1,200,000,000 for something as unnecessary as “Construction of New Office Building in FCT (North Central),” but then I remembered that they are all about the “Jackpot,” and they found one in the National Budget.

The Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reforms will spend 233,110,338 on conferences and meetings. This, right here, summarises the uselessness of this particular committee.

We have come to the end of the ninth part of this budget analysis series. One thing I have noticed with this budget is that as I analyse it further, my numbness to the sheer ridiculousness of what is written in it increases. I come across figures that do not make any sense, and I do not feel anything.

The in-between for today is: 40,000,000, that’s the amount the National Cereals Research Institute (Badeggi) has budgeted for the “Procurement of Smart Phones for Farmers.” Have a wonderful day!

I am on Twitter @Saatah