A non governmental organisation, BudgIT Nigeria says the Nigerian Government in its 2021 Annual Budget plans to spend a whopping sum of N39.5 billion on 316 duplicated capital projects contributing to the acute corruption in the country.
The organisation also revealed that about N10.02 trillion spent on security sector of the nation has no audit records from 2015 to 2021, which is evident in the worsening security situations in Nigeria.
BudgIT disclosed further that non-security related agencies also received ‘security votes’ without accountability which is deepening the corrupt system of this nation.
In its press statement posted on Twitter, BudgIT made the disclosure on Wednesday.
The revelation buttressed the cries of the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who on Tuesday lamented the recycling of capital projects by the federal institutions, thus saying the Nigerian government may cut down on the salaries of the federal workers to reduce cost of governance.
BudgIT said, “Our analysis of the #2021Budget reveals over 316 duplicated capital projects totalling N39.5bn, among other loopholes for corruption.
“BudgIT also found ZERO audit records of the N10.02tn received by the security sector between 2015 & 2021.”
BudgIT stated that security sector has gulped a huge chunk of the budget with no fruitful results to show, adding that other sectors of the economy suffer funding instead.
“2021 has been a horrifying year for Nigerians concerning security – as the country combats mutating forms of crime and terror – across all its 36 states. This is despite allocating over N10.02tn to security between 2015 and 2021.
“In the 2021 budget, the entire security sector’s allocation was N1.97tn, representing a 14% increase from the N1.78tn allocated in 2020.
“Increased resources allocated to the security sector means that less money is available to develop other sectors; thus, there is a need for more scrutiny of how these allocations are budgeted and spent.
“Likewise, our publication (to be released later today), noted that various non-security related government agencies now request and receive allocations for “Security Votes,” an opaque feature of the Nigerian security ecosystem devoid of accountability.
“In the 2021 budget, a total of 117 federal agencies received allocations for ‘Security Votes’ worth N24.3bn, despite many of these agencies already having allocations for ‘Security Charges’ to cover each agency’s security needs,” the statement partly read.
In its revelations, BudgIT showed how some federal corporations got budgetary allocations for the projects they could not execute, therefore throwing the country into penury.
“Furthermore, BudgIT observed that the little budgetary allocation provided to other sectors are plagued with various loopholes for leakages and theft of public funds.
“Our investigations into the 2021 budget revealed at least 316 duplicated capital projects worth N39.5bn, with 115 of those duplicate projects occurring in the Ministry of Health.
“This is very disturbing especially considering the health infrastructure deficit and the raging COVID-19 pandemic affecting Nigeria.
“Even worse, agencies now receive allocations for capital projects they cannot execute. For example, the National Agriculture Seed Council has an allocation for N400m to construct solar street lights across all six geopolitical zones.
“While the Federal College of Forestry in Ibadan, Oyo State, got N50m for the construction of street lights in Edo State. These are aberrations that need to be corrected.
“Nigeria is already haunted by a staggering N3.31tn debt servicing burden which will wipe out nearly 41.63% of the projected N7.99tn 2021 revenue. @NigeriaGov and @nassnigeria can maximise the little public funds left by blocking the leakages BudgIT has identified,” BudgIT finally said in the statement.
