Budget: FG’s generators to gulp N5.5bn

[DT]

The Presidency and federal ministries have proposed to spend a total of N5.54 billion in maintaining and fuelling generators next year.  A Daily Trust analysis of the Appropriation Bill which President Jonathan presented to the National Assembly penultimate week shows that the Ministry of Health and its parastatals have the biggest budget of N1.464 billion for generators. Out of the sum, N1.246 billion will be spent on fuel while N218 million will be used for maintenance of plants.

The budget covers the ministry's headquarters, teaching hospitals and federal medical centres where life-saving equipment that require 24-hour power supply are domiciled, as well other federal health agencies and institutions.

The huge budget for generators is coming against the backdrop of the Federal Government's claims of efforts to increase power generation to 14000 megawatts by the end of 2013.

As at October 3, government said power generation climbed to 3947 megawatts and that it will reach between 4500 to 5000 megawatts by the end of the year. However, this appears to fly in the face of the billions budgeted for generators in 2013.

The budget document shows that the Defence ministry and military formations plan to spend N620 million for the maintenance and fuelling of generators/plants.

Defence is followed closely by the Ministry of Education, its parastals and institutions with a budget proposal of N415million. Ministry of Agriculture and the institutions and parastatals have proposed the sum of N315 million.

The presidency will spend N341 million to fuel and maintain generators in addition to proposals for electricity bills.

This covers the State House and agencies under the Presidency, including the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), National Boundary Commission, Economic and Financial Crimes commission, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru.

The Ministry of Power which administered billions of dollars spent on the power sector over the years has budgeted N28 million to service and fuel its generators and plants in 2013.

Petroleum ministry and parastatals will spend N128 million. Of the amount, N35 million will be spent on generators maintenance while N42 million will be used to fuel the generators.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs will spend N171 million, Interior ministry and agencies have voted the sum of N231 million while the Ministry of Justice and its agencies and will spend N113 million in 2013.

The Ministry of Environment has proposed to spend N127 million on maintenance and fuelling of generators of the parent ministry and its parastatals. For the ministry of culture, the amount budgeted for generators is put at N42 million. In the Ministry of Trade and Investment, N104 million will be spent while the Ministry of Transport and its agencies will spend the sum N57 million on generators.

The sports ministry has also proposed to spend N35 million while the Niger Delta ministry will spend the sum of N29 million on maintenance and fuelling of generators.

The budget document also shows that the Ministry of Communications Technology has proposed the sum of N72 million out of which N66 million is for generator fuel while the balance goes into maintenance of the generators. The budget proposal also shows that Ministry of Information and its parastatals have proposed to spend N671 million for similar purpose.

The ministry of Police Affairs have a spending proposal of N24 million while Women Affairs ministry and Ministry of Youth Development will spend N12 million and N62 million respectively on maintaining and fuelling generators.

The Ministry of Finance and Aviation, on their part, have proposed to N119 million and N5 million respectively.



Daily Trust