Presidency to spend N2.8b on residential buildings

The Presidency plans to spend over
N2.8 billion to “rehabilitate and repair”
residential buildings for the President,
the Vice President and their
entourages next year – going by
details of the budget.
Besides, the Presidency estimates that
it will spend N733,893,900 on
refreshments and meals, foodstuff
and catering materials supplies for
both the president and the vice
president, according to a document
stating the ABC of the budget.
The Presidency, comprising the offices
of the president and the vice
president, intends to spend N2.96
billion on local and international
travels next year.
Under the capital expenditure of the
Presidency, the Villa, as it is popularly
known in Abuja, the capital city has
proposed to spend N2,879,000,000
on residential buildings.
A breakdown of the expenditure
shows that N2.6 billion is to be spent
on the upgrading and maintenance of
Villa facilities. No details were given as
to which facilities the cash will be
spent on.
About N120,000,000 will be spent to
model the new guest house at 41,
Yakubu Gowon Crescent, Asokoro for
the Vice President. Besides,
N120,000,000 will be spent on the
completion of the rehabilitation of
security quarters at Mpape Artillery,
Asokoro.
Just like last year, the Presidency plans
to spend N10 million to rehabilitate
the presidential and ministerial chalet
at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja,
N89 million will be spent to
rehabilitate the State House Medical
Centre (SHMC) service quarters and
N30 million for the SHMC
infrastructure.
On food stuff and refreshments for
the Villa, there was a slight reduction
in the figures for 2013. The President’s
food stuff and catering materials
supply is to cost N294,238,969. The
Vice President’s is estimated to cost
N112,500,000.
For refreshments and meals, the
President wants to spend
N203,752,432 while the Vice President
is asking for N123,402,499.
The vice president wants an additional
N40,784,248 in 2013 for the printing
of non-security documents.
According to the details of the 2013
budget figures The Nation stumbled
on last night, the President plans to
spend N1,289,624,428 on his foreign
travels and N1,035,319,145 on local
travels. The Vice President is seeking
for N387,219,988 for international
travels and N249,775,990 for local
travels.
A simple but symbolic task of budget
presentation by the President has
become the subject of a big row
between the executive and the
legislature.
The Presidency responded with anger
yesterday to what it described as
scathing remarks by the Senate
President David Mark and House
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal during the
presentation of the 2013 budget
estimate by President Goodluck
Jonathan to a joint session of the
National Assembly on Wednesday.
Mark, after the presentation,
described the budget proposal as
mere estimates and warned the
President not to expect the National
Assembly to rubber stamp the
document.
Tambuwal criticised the executive for
the poor implementation of this year’s
budget, stressing that the assessment
by members of the House was not
impressive.
Apparently miffed by the reaction of
the leaders of the legislature, Senior
Special Assistant to the President on
Public Affairs Dr. Doyin Okupe, decried
what he described as “unfair
treatment of the President” by Mark
and Tambuwal.
Addressing reporters in Abuja
yesterday, Okupe took exceptions to
Mark’s description of the budget as
“mere estimates”, saying the Senate
President was derisive in his remarks.
According to him, the budget, as
presented by the President, is a
product of rational thinking and not
mere estimates, as Mark stated.
“In a democracy, there is useful idea
about deliberations, until useful
conclusions are reached. Referring to
the budget as mere estimates is unfair
and does not speak well of the entire
process.
“President Jonathan and his
administration do not see the
National Assembly as a rubber stamp.
The President does not expect the
National Assembly to be a rubber
stamp,” Okupe said.
The President’s aide faulted the
Speaker’s non performance verdict on
the 2012 budget, saying the
document was signed into law only in
April and that there was no way the
budget could have done better under
the circumstance.
Okupe maintained that despite the
late signing of the 2012 budget, the
executive has released N711 .6 billion
for capital projects to the various
MDAs.
This, he said, represents 53 per cent
of capital release in just six months
into the life of the budget.
The aide disagreed with Tambuwal
over inadequate release of funds to
the MDAs, saying that many of them
did not utilise a substantial chunk of
their quarterly budgets. There is no
sense in releasing more money to
them when they did not exhaust the
previous one.
“The Speaker should know that the
era of releasing funds without due
process is over and government
cannot continue to play Father Xmas
with budgetary allocations,” Okupe
said.
He described the move by the
legislature to fix the budget
benchmark at $80 per barrel for the
2013 budget as uncalled for.
Citing other oil producing countries,
such as Algeria, Angola, Venezuela,
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
where the benchmark is far below the
$75 proposed by the federal
executive, Okupe said the $80
benchmark proposed by the
legislature was unrealistic.
Okupe accused Tambuwal of being
dictatorial and over authoritative,
saying that the National Assembly and
its leadership should not be seen to
be playing to the gallery.
Thenation