Again, the phrase, “governance and institutional reforms”, resurfaces in the budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in the sum of N1.334bn; Ministry of Mines and Steel got N34.6m; the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment got N935,132,867 and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs N200.8m.
Now, let us get into a play on words in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. This involves multiplication, division and sub-division of issues around monitoring and evaluation and to get the maximum allocations out of the 2017 federal budget. Budget performance monitoring gets N31m whilst dashboard monitoring and evaluation system gets N14m; another N14.9m is for executive dashboard tracking system. N800m is voted for monitoring the performance of power sector projects and mandatory quarterly inspection of field offices gets a further N32m. Quarterly monitoring and evaluation of works programmes with the Presidency and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning gets N37m. Monitoring and evaluation of the “Rest Point Project” gets N3m; monitoring and evaluation of the SDG capital projects gets N20.1m. “Purchase of project vehicles (20 Nos Toyota Hilux @ N12.5 million per unit, 40 Nos.18 seater bus @ N12.5 million per unit; 10 Nos Prado jeep @ N21 million per unit for supervision and monitoring of the construction of National Housing Programme nationwide (36 states and the FCT) and other projects” has a vote of N960m. A project named federal audit nationwide assets and projects verification has an allocation of N20m.
Still on monitoring and evaluation in the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, quarterly verification and report of utilisation of overhead cost and revenue generation and its remittance from the 36 field offices gets N35m. Continuous and comprehensive verification of capital projects in 36 state headquarters gets N10m and purchase of monitoring vehicles for N242m. Capital budget implementation monitoring and evaluation gets N23.2m. Government and institutional reforms: physical inspection and verification ofspecial projects in the 36 states including the FCT has an allocation of N5.7m. Nationwide verification and monitoring of the FMW P&H (housing) projects by procurement officers gets N10m whilst internal audit nationwide assess and project verification gets N25m. Finally, there is a review of the existing target performance and consolidation of key performance indicators for the sector and sector annual report for N50m.
Will the N800m specifically tied to monitoring and evaluation not have been sufficient for the purpose? At a time the Federal Government is mouthing Buy Made in Nigeria, a key MDA of government is specifically budgeting for foreign vehicles when local ones can do exactly the same job. Also, in relation to budget preparation and defence, the Ministry of Powers, Works and Housing made the following provisions: Budget preparation gets N20m; sustenance of effective budgeting gets N25m and acquisition of equipment for budget activities gets N20m. Establishment of budget data software for analysis of budgeting allocation expenditure/returns is allocated N20m and budget preparation and defence activities (FMBNP&NASS) has N20m allocation. What exactly is the difference between these votes? It is just the usual play on words to get money out of the treasury in a supposed budget of recovery and growth.
In terms of inappropriate allocations, in the office of the Secretary to the Federal Government, there is a vote of N237.9m for subscription to professional bodies. This raises the poser; how many staff work under this office and how many professional bodies do they need to subscribe to? What exactly is “improving land based revenue generation” that has a vote of N60m in the estimates of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing? The Federal Capital Territory Administration has voted a mere N3.79bn for the Abuja Rail Mass Transit project, Lots 1 and 3. Again, posers surface; will this amount be enough for the completion of the project? How many years will it take for this project to be completed? It is a sign of poor planning to have a project in the budget for close to 10 years and pretend that something is being done about it. It is either the government wants to finish the project or it intends to abandon it. There is no half way in-between.
The Ministry of Communication Technology is proposing to establish an ICT university and voted N166.6m. Is this the best way to promote the acquisition of ICT knowledge in Nigeria? There are other cost-effective means of promoting ICT knowledge rather than starting afresh to establish a specialised university that will likely be poorly funded like other federal universities. The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development proposes N216m for motor vehicles, N528m for vans and N42m for buses. Pray, does it mean that the ministry had no vehicles in the first place? This demand is on the high side and inappropriate. At a time other nations are moving away from coal technology, the Ministry of Mines and Steel proposes to invest N208.8m in coal technology.
Furthermore, the resources programmed for constituency projects of legislators in the past were not tied to any national policy priorities in the spirit of the policy, plan and budget continuum. It has therefore become imperative for the constituency projects of 2017 to be tied to national priorities that are sustainable. The fact that over 2,000 constituency projects have not been completed and remain abandoned is a waste of national resources. There must be a framework through which projects nominated by former members of the National Assembly but which were not completed take priority before a new member nominates a new project. Otherwise, it would be an exercise in waste and economic sabotage to continue sinking money in projects that merely satisfy the ego of serving legislators while neglecting the welfare of the people.
Furthermore, the resources programmed for constituency projects of legislators in the past were not tied to any national policy priorities in the spirit of the policy, plan and budget continuum. It has therefore become imperative for the constituency projects of 2017 to be tied to national priorities that are sustainable. The fact that over 2,000 constituency projects have not been completed and remain abandoned is a waste of national resources. There must be a framework through which projects nominated by former members of the National Assembly but which were not completed take priority before a new member nominates a new project. Otherwise, it would be an exercise in waste and economic sabotage to continue sinking money in projects that merely satisfy the ego of serving legislators while neglecting the welfare of the people.
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