Date Published: 04/23/10
Budget Group exposes corrupt ministries, warns Jonathan
ACCOUNTABILITY group, Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group (NDEBUMOG) has
unveiled ministries and public agencies in Nigeria alleged to be involved
in high profile corrupt practices.
The group has accordingly warned Acting President Goodluck Jonathan
against such ministries even as they urged him to withheld his accent on
the 2010 budget.
Executive Director of the group, Mr. George-Hill Anthony, in a report to
AkanimoReports on Friday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, said
Nigerian citizens seem to have accepted groaning under the pains of
budgetary atrocities, in view of the refusal of all tiers of government in
Nigeria to conduct an open Public Hearing aimed at integrating
(Nigeria’s) citizens into a measurable fiscal delivery of the budgetary
targets.
According to NDEBUMOG, ''it is worrisome to observe that Nigeria’s
bureaucrats are yet to come to terms on the global campaigns towards the
MDGs. The budget 2010 has also exposed the systemic collapsed of
bureaucratic discipline''.
They said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources has a
total allocation of N148 billion. This ministry is ranked by NDEBUMOG
among the worst in the performance index of federal ministries going by
how Basin Authorities has compounded service delivery in social and basic
infrastructure to the citizenry.
''These Basin Authorities shadowed how States and Local Government can
better intervene on infrastructural delivery to the people, confusing
stakeholders about Federal presence boosted only through their bloated
recurrent envelopes. Matters such as water availability should better be
left to the States and Local Governments'', they said.
Continuing, they claimed that the ministry is yet to explain to Nigerians
what has happened to the billions given by the Federal Government to
farmers in 2009, and has budgeted N37 million for Local and International
Travels, N200 million as Contribution to Food and Agricultural
Organisations, N10 million for Procurement of Books, N250 million for
Monitoring and Evaluation of its own projects and programmes, N477 Million
for Chinese (+ Nigeria) South- South Cooperation, N400 million for EC
Assisted Water Supply and Sanitation, N400 million for ADB Assisted Water
Quality Laboratory, N500 million for EU Assisted Water Supply and
Sanitation Sector Reforms, N200 million for National Water Sanitation
Policy.
''The N200 million budgeted for National Water Sanitation Policy is a
fraud. Unfortunately, nearly all the federal ministries have huge envelops
for Local and International Travels even when the Presidency has
restricted non-technical travels for civil servants of some cadre which
was re-emphasised in the 2010-2012 Fiscal Strategy Paper of the Federal
Government.
''The N10 million for this ministry and many other ministries (like
Petroleum Resources which has N100 million) for the procurement of books
spell doom going by the poverty disparity in the country. The N200 million
Contributions to Food and Agricultural Organisation also expose the stinks
of how government funds are shared to cronies.
''At a time some African countries are wrestling to weed the influence of
Chinese away against destruction of their economies going by poor quality
of Chinese goods associated with poor human rights history of the Asian
country, is the time the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water
Resources are budgeting to spend close to N500 million under China-Nigeria
(South-South) Cooperation. But the Niger Delta people must not allow the
Chinese to penetrate extractive communities in the region, whether or not
the post PIB era makes it possible'', NDEBUMOG said.
The rest of their report went thus:
''Atrocities which may come with such can be more destructive than what
Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total/Elf and others has caused extractive
communities in the Niger Delta.
''Next in line in our projective assessment is the Ministry of Niger Delta
Affairs’ 2010 budget. This ministry has an allocation N64 billion. This
is higher by N13 billion from its budget of N51 billion in 2009.
''We had raised an alarm about the huge waste in this ministry’s budget
in 2009, which included, N500 million for local, international travels and
trainings. In spite of the alarm we raised, this ministry is budgeting
(aggregated) N637 million for international travels, local travels, local
trainings and transport under general sub-head in 2010. This is an abuse
to the collective psychology of our suffering Niger Delta people.
''While the 2010 budget of the Niger Delta Ministry can be considered as
Ufot Ekaette’s budget, the civil servants who aggregated the sub-heads
into the larger envelope of this ministry cannot be exonerated from this
fraudulent projection. We urge the Acting President to seek oversight from
the Civil Society towards responsible implementation of envelopes for this
Ministry cloned in wasteful calculations. Amazingly, this is the same
Ministry which budgets N285.5 million for electricity charges, telephone
charges, internet access charges, satellite broadcasting access charges,
water rates, sewage and leased communication line(s) in 2009.
''In 2010, this ministry is budgeting N77 million for telephone charges
alone, N22 million for satellite broadcasting charges, N48 million for
sewage charges, N22 million for refreshment and meals. How many people did
this ministry feed in their N50 million envelope for refreshment in 2009?
Nigerians do not know why various ministries are competing to sew uniforms
(either for known or unknown soldiers) like the Niger Delta Ministry which
budgeted N20 million for uniforms in 2009 and N38 million for more
uniforms in 2010. The Budget Office of the Federation should release the
Budget Performance Report (of all Ministries) for 2009 to Nigerians''.
''The faulty expenditure pollution of the MDAs'', they went on, ''further
stinks when a ministry like this is projecting N44 million for (non-line)
Field Matters Supplies and N370 million for (General) Maintenance
Services, even when N38 million under a separate line expenditure is
further allocated for maintenance of furniture. This is a Ministry which
was created to intervene in a region ranked among the world’s poorest
people.
''At what time did this ministry procure speed boats and where is the
Ministry’s jetty in the Niger Delta where their boats are anchored? Can
a ministry that have not procured boats budget N49 million for boats
maintenance and another N44 million for sea boat fuelling? How much is the
cost for furniture which N38 million shall be used for its maintenance?
What was the N50 million budgeted for boats maintenance in 2009 used for?
Why must these budgetary atrocities continue year after year in a country
and region where millions of citizens go to bed without food? Do
exhibitors of these negations have any other country for their children?
''The total for maintenance of office and other infrastructure for the
Niger Delta Ministry is N82 million, while N70 million is for maintenance
of furniture. This same Ministry has budgeted N15 million for furniture
maintenance in 2009.
''We, NDEBUMOG, have no other option than to call on the Acting President
not to sign this 2010 budget into law. Doing so is to encourage
institutional corruption. There is no electricity in Nigeria but the same
government that cannot restore stable Power Generation continue to have
its Ministries (like Niger Delta Affairs) budgeting N60 million for
Generator Maintenance.
''Local and International Training continue to appear under duplicated
budget (ELs) head which is a strategy to cover huge travel budget running
into hundreds of millions of naira. What is the implication for the
monetisation policy if Ministries’ continue to allocate figures as huge
as N154 million for fuel and lubricants cost? This is outside tens of
other millions for generator fuel cost''.
This pro-accountability group says a miscellaneous of over N300 million in
any ministry’s budget in Nigeria is a huge fraud and crime against
humanity going by how the price for lives of Nigerians have been cheapened
due to effect of corruption.
''Dr. Goodluck Jonathan should restore fiscal discipline and criminal
expenditure penalty to the public service. Why should N22 million be
budgeted for refreshment in a region where as little as N500 a day is
difficult to come by for many families, and N55 million to advertise
what!? N110 million is for grants and contributions to whom? Another N55
million is allocated as contribution to Local Organisations'', they said,
adding, if N55 million is for contribution to local organisations, why
deceitfully allocating another N55 million as contribution to
International Organisations at a time International Organisations are
eager to make contributions to Niger Delta’s development.
According to NDEBUMOG, ''The N1.5 billion for Niger Delta Coastal Road
Design should have clear indicators within the spread of Medium Term
Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to forestall this becoming a revolving circle
of design from year to year. We urge the Acting President to release a
white paper on Mitee led Presidential Committee Report and make history as
a Niger Deltan who respects the sensibilities and yearnings of his people.
Curiously, the Ministry for Niger Delta Affairs has budgeted N500 million
for post-amnesty trainings (Micro-finance, Value Orientations etc)''.
They argued: ''It is however disheartening to see this ministry toying
with the fates of the militants combining communications budget with
rehabilitation. It was the same deception in 2009. There is no way a
ministry can lump communications spending with that of a sensitive
assignment as militants rehabilitation. Such spending head means they
(MNDA) can spend bulk of the N500 million on Communications even as
demobilized militants continue to roam the streets for rehabilitation
remedy''.
Adding, they said, ''we cannot accept a desperate competition between the
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the National Environmental
Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), and the Ministry of
Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA) on issues of clean-up of Niger Delta’s oil
spills pollution and impacted sites. All these three bodies must
constitute a workable (clean up) committee to clean up the entire Niger
Delta. Niger Delta Ministry is projecting N5.5 billion in 2010 for
Environmental Support Programme, Remediation of Impacted Sites, Land
Reclamation, Shore Line Protection etc.
''This figure is a big fraud, same with the line- phrasing of the
Expenditure Line Item. In budget work, all the Expenditure Line Items (on
Capital Votes, Recurrent and Overhead) must be measurable. Nigeria is
ranked by budget activist among the worst countries which do not have a
time-measured delivery and evaluation tracking in its National budget.
''For a ministry to wake up and solicit N5.5 billion for Environmental
Support Programme, Remediation of Impacted Sites, Land Reclamation, Shore
Line Protection etc, can better be interpreted or described as people
using ineffectual means to frame budget figures. For the sake of
education, before arriving at such a figure, comprehensive data
information and scoping on the following is needed. This includes:
· Disaggregation of active and inactive oil pipelines, unitisation
locations, flow stations, platforms, export terminals, etc
· Estimation of invasive vessels (which can be tracked through
DPR/NEITI) which trans-load crude at high seas with destructive effect to
aquatic lives, raw impacted sites and shadowed spill site(s) by IOCs,
· Exhausted wells without proper deactivation baseline, among many
other factors very dear to the survival and environmental sustainability
of our Niger Delta communities.
For them, the foregoing is a huge exercise which is needed before budget
padders wake up with rolled over figures to deceive our people. This
subject matter also affects the Acting President’s community in Ogbia,
Bayelsa State, and we hope he is taking note.
Worrisomely, they have drawn attention of Nigerians to duplicated shore
line protection projects of the Niger Delta Ministry in 2009, but since
the operators of the Nigerian state consider themselves above peoples
power, the figures for shoreline protection has continued to double in
figures and line labelling.
''Our concern is for locations like Ikuru Town in Rivers State where the
Rivers State government since 2008 has been spending hundreds of millions
for same project, just like in Mbo, Akwa Ibom State, where the most
impacted shoreline location is Inua-Abasi but with Effiat Mbo being where
the Ministry is claiming to have been intervening since 2009. Thank God
Uffot Ekaette did not return to this ministry'', they said.
The Acting President has ordered the new ministers to look within the
archives of various Ministries for various reports and blue-prints. The
NDDC also has spent the region’s money for its Master Plan, even though
some projection towards community delivery in the NDDC Master Plan is more
scientific than realistic. Unfortunately, upon reports and reports
available to stakeholders on the solutions to Niger Delta quagmire, the Ministry for Niger Delta Affairs is allocating N1.5 billion in their 2010
budget for Preliminary Consultancy on Integrated Niger Delta
Infrastructural Plan.
''No one should forget the cry of the poor has generational implications
for those who short-change the poor masses. Another sad scenario is the
budget of N40 million for Establishment of Ministerial Library by this
Ministry, even while there is another N70 million in their budget for
Niger Delta Project Implementation Liaison Offices and facilitation of
Communications'', NDEBUMOG said.
Obviously hitting hard at Abuja, they said the Federal Government is
short-changing the Niger Delta by mandating the Niger Delta Ministry to
take over projects of other sectors thereby reducing Federal Government
interventions in the region.
They claimed that other ministries are supposed to be developing the
region in conjunction with the Niger Delta Ministry but the opposite is
the case. By 2011, it would be clear if the Federal Government created
this Ministry as Greek gift to take away many other projects from the
region in the name of creating the Niger Delta Ministry. The ministry in
itself has not justified its creation yet. Chief Ufot Ekaete, a Niger
Deltan failed woefully. It is our prayer that Chief Orubebe would want to
be remembered positively.
The Petroleum Resources Ministry is also one of the institutions they are
looking at in 2010. This was a budget that was conceptualized by Rilwanu
Lukeman before his exit from this Ministry.
This ministry is budgeting N150 million for the Renovation of NNPC Towers.
N810 million is allocated for Facilities for Technical and Administrative
Cooperation on International bodies on Oil & Gas Utilization. N100 million
budgeted by this Ministry for Library Development and Procurement of
Books. These are all frivolous projections.
''Why should the Petroleum Industry Bill implementation (when it becomes
law) cost this Ministry N7.5 billion to implement? N26 million is for
Refreshment and Meals, N800 million for Patrol Vehicles and a N100 million
for Oil and Gas Reference Library?'', they querried.
Carpeting the legislative arm of the Nigerian government, they claimed
that no responsible legislature can pass this sort of budget in any
country. Nigerians have been taken for granted for so long. Votes must
count in 2011.
''Only credible elections in 2011 can arrest all these anomalies. The
National Assembly needs massive fumigation through credible elections in
2011.The masses may not wait beyond 2011 and the outcome may be the
predictions of America (on the break-up of Nigeria) coming to pass'', they
added.
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