CLO Queries Akwa Ibom’s N582 Billion 2022 Appropriation Bill

The 2022 Akwa Ibom State Appropriation Bill of N582.12 billion currently before the state House of Assembly is being queried by a rights group, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO).

The query is part of a submission made by the state branch of CLO during a public hearing for the bill which was held at the Old Chapel, of the Assembly Complex in Uyo.

CLO is demanding that the Bill should be positively rejigged before passage while llocations to nebulous and non-critical Items should be revisited and slashed. The allocations for Capital Expenditure to the critical sectors, such as Health, Education, Agriculture, and Water should be enhanced.

The huge allocations of capital votes to Government House, Office of the Accountant General, and Office of the Secretary to the State Government among others, should be revisited and slashed. The Capital Expenditure for the state Judiciary should be enhanced.

Following the massive embrace of the free education policy of the State Government, more capital votes should be channeled to Education sector for the building and equipping of primary, secondary and technical schools.

CLO is lamenting that allocations for Capital Expenditure are in favour of non-critical sectors while the various offices within the Government House are allocated huge capital votes far in excess of the allocations for capital votes to the critical sectors, such as; “Health,” “Education,” “Agriculture,” and “Water”.

For instance, with N9,524,000,000.00 to “Ministry of Health” (Item No.111); N50,000,000.00 to “State Agency for the Control of AIDS (SACA)”, (Item No.142) and N441,000,000.00 to the “Hospitals Management Board,” (Item No.87), the Health Sector is allocated N10,015,000,000.00 in capital votes which is not sufficient to address the many challenges in the Health sector.

Again, with N7,193,705,370.00 to “Ministry of Education”, (Item No.108); N41,500,000.00 to the “State Secondary Education Board,” (Item No.145); N203,000,000.00 to “State Technical Schools Board”, (Item No.146) and N213,700,000.00 to “State Universal Basic Education Board,” (Item No.147), Education sector is allocated N7,651,905,370.00 which is less than 10% of the capital votes, and less than 10% of the total Budget and far less than the 26% UNESCO minimum benchmark for Education.

For a state that is yearning for accelerated development, this lopsidedness in the allocation of capital votes is unhealthy.

CLO observes that the “State Scholarship Board”, (Item No.144, Schedule 2) has no capital vote. CLO urges that the Board should be provided with capital votes, in order to offer scholarship programmes to deserving students of the state origin, as a way of rewarding excellence and hard work among the youths.

CLO also observes that there is no budgetary provision for Ibom Air in the Appropriation Bill 2022. This raises question on the issue of ownership of Ibom Air.

“CLO is appalled that there is no capital provision for our tertiary Education and Health Institution. This has been the norm in previous budgets of Akwa Ibom State Government. Capital projects in our critical institutions should go beyond perimeter fencing, re-painting and provision of wooden desks to building and equipping of our laboratories.

“The Capital provision of N41,500,000.00 for the “State Secondary Education Board”, (Item No.145, Schedule 2) is too meagre considering the number of schools under its supervision. We do not believe, for instance, that the “State Agency for the Control of AIDS (SACA)”, (Item No.142) with N50,000,000.00, has more capital projects to execute than all the Secondary Schools in the State put together”, the rights group says.

In a statement by CLO Chairman,  Franklyn Isong, and Secretary, Christopher Ekpo, the group objects strongly to the inclusion of Item No. 10 “Akwa Ibom College of Science and Technology”, which is allocated N1,001,725,780.00. CLO observes that the College is an illegal Institution which is not backed by Law.

CLO notes that the Bill seeking to establish and/or upgrade the College was passed by the state House of Assembly in 2020 but, was not assented to by the State Governor. CLO notes that the lifespan of the Bill had long elapsed having overshot the 30 days constitutional period laid down in Section 100 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“CLO urges, on the strength of the foregoing, that Item No. 10 “Akwa Ibom College of Science and Technology”, should be deleted from the Appropriation Bill 2022. CLO also urges the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to demand a refund to the State Treasury the amount of money disbursed from the State Treasury out of the N985,589,500.00 appropriated for the College as Recurrent Expenditure in the 2021 Appropriation Bill.”

It notes that Ministry of Justice – is allocated N2,237,546,050.00 as Recurrent Expenditure. CLO rather the ministry got N1,782,618,890.00 as Recurrent Expenditure in the 2021 Appropriation Bill. Comparing the Recurrent Expenditure for the Ministry of Justice in the 2021 and 2022 Appropriation Bills.

CLO finds a humongous difference of N454,927,160.00; and the organisation is unable to fathom the reason for such prohibitive difference in just one year in the Recurrent Expenditure in the Ministry of Justice.

The rights group then called on the state House of Assembly to investigate and unravel the reason for the huge increase in the votes for the Ministry’s Recurrent Expenditure.

It questioned allocation to Dakkada Football Club which has a Recurrent Expenditure of N198,000,000.00, which is more than the Recurrent Expenditure for all the Health Centres in Akwa Ibom State put together. This means that in 2022, the Government of Akwa Ibom State has more interest in football matches than the health of the citizenry.

Comprehensive Health Centre/Cottage Hospital on Schedule 1, CLO pointed out have identical allocations under Recurrent Expenditure; and each Item is allocated N6,000,000.00. These identical allocations create the impression that the nagging issue of ghost workers still exists in this sector, the organisation alleged.

It notes that Item Nos. 70 – 84 on Schedule 1 have identical allocations under Recurrent Expenditure. Each Item, a “General Hospital,” is allocated N7,200,000.00. These identical allocations create the impression that the nagging issue of ghost workers still exists in this sector.

“(f) CLO notes that Item No. 32 “Akwa Ibom State Rice Development Project” has a Recurrent Expenditure of N6,300.000.00. This Item has no Capital Expenditure provision. CLO, therefore, suggests that the Item be folded up or made a Unit under the Ministry of Agriculture.

“(g) CLO notes that Item No. 39 in Schedule 1, “Akwa Ibom Urban Taxi Network Limited” is allocated N37,465,740.00, under Recurrent Expenditure. CLO notes that there is no Capital Expenditure provision for this Item. CLO, therefore, suggests that the Item be folded up or made a Unit under the Ministry of Transport.”

CLO maintained that the Recurrent Expenditure for the following Items is too high: “i. Akwa Ibom State Budget Office (Item No.15) –N15,438,892,830.00; ii. Bureau of Political and Social Re-orientation (Item No.41) -N895,387,750.00; iii. General Services Office (Item No.85) -N4,593,850,430.00; iv. Government House (Item No.86) -N27,283,003,640.00; v. House of Assembly Service Commission (Item No.88) –N357,578,340.00; vi. Office of the Accountant General (Item No.127) – N75,375,803,060.00; and vii. Office of the Secretary to State Government (Item No.133) -N3,332,527,750.00.”

CLO declared that the foregoing allocations are not good indication of Government’s priority for
the 2022 Fiscal Year as Item No. 67 on Schedule 1, “Finance and General Purpose Committee,” is allocated N106,279,520.00 under Recurrent Expenditure. This allocation is high and appears unjustifiable considering that members of staff of the Committee are civil servants drawn from their respective Ministries.

 

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