"Nigeria's 2012 budget of N4,749trillion is premised on an oil pricebenchmark of $70 a barrel, total production of 2.45 million barrelsa day and an exchange rate of N155 to 1US$.
The budget does not make provision for funding fuel subsidy.
An initial review and analysis of the budget reveals the huge wastages contained therein.
Some examples of wasteful spending decisions are itemized below:
In 21 out of 50 Ministries, Departments and Agencies revealed the following amounts for some recurrent and capital expenditure items:
· Travel - local and international N13 billion
· Stationery, Magazines, Newspapers, etc. N4.5 billion
· Maintenance of vehicles, furniture, etc.N17 billion
· Training N5 billion
· Fuel and Lubricants for cars, generators, etcN4 billion
· Miscellaneous: welfare packages, refreshments, meals,N9billion
· Acquisition of Computer Software N2.5 billion
· Research and Development: N27billion
N1.2 billion in the Ministry of Agriculture is to incorporate commodity marketing companies! The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to spend N322 million to acquire"computer software".
The following are some examplesof what has been included in the State House (Aso Rock Villa) budget:
Overhead is about N7.2 billion, or about N20 million per day to keep our President and VP happy.Their local travel budget is N724 million or N2 million per day, including weekends, while their international travel budget ix N951 million or nearly N3 million per day.
The president's office has N285 million to hand out as "welfare package", N265 million to buy computers, N150 million to buy scanners, N161 million for buses, N295 million for new furniture, and N1.8 billion to "maintain existing furniture, office and residential quarters". Desktops for N300,000 each, laptops for N314,000 each and scanners for a whopping N190,000. The public address system in the President, VP's office and Banquet Hall will cost N150 million! The SGF will spend N65 million on tree planting.
The purported expenditure of between N1.4 and N1.6 trillion on'subsidizing' PMS and Kerosene is fictitious and fraudulent.
Ten marketers received 80% of the subsidy paid during the period. They are MRS (Sayyu Dantata), Oando (Wale Tinubu), African Petroleum/ Zenon (Femi Otedola), Folawiyo Energy (Tunde Folawiyo), Aiteo Energy, Rahmaniyya (Yar'Adua's In-law To Be), Northwest Petroleum, Total, Sahara Energy (Tonye Cole)and Conoil (Mike Adenuga).
About 36% of purported stocks of refined and imported products for which subsidy of N296 billion was paid between 2007 and 2009 were questionable, and notavailable for sale to the public (i.e.non-existent!). The demurrage paid of US $198 million during the period was equally questioned. The Auditors provided the names of the companies involved in the imports, storage and demurrage issues. They include Addax, Sahara, MRS and Oando, among others.
Pinnacle and Sahara Energy got paid subsidies with questionable documentation."
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