With the downturn in the economy forcing austerity measures, the state house will spend N6.5billion for its operations this year. The details of the expenditure are contained in the 2015 budget breakdown, which Vanguard sighted last night. The document also showed that the office of the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, will make use of N463.5 million within the year.
Among the items of expenditure is the repairs/maintenance of buildings, which will gulp N826.6 million; purchase of canteen/kitchen equipment, N303.9 million; purchase of medical equipment, N174 million and the provision of meals, N174.5 million.
Further analysis of the budget showed that the maintenance of residential office and residential buil-dings in the State House will cost the nation N913.5 million, while N131.9 million will be used for fuel and lubricants within the financial year.
The Presidency has also set aside N202 million for stationary and another N223 million for staff uniforms and other clothings.
The Office of the Vice President is expected to spend N21.6 million on fuel; N12.7 million on generators; N11.5 on meals/refreshments and N15 million on honorarium within the year.
Certain departments under the Presidency like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC; Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP; National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS; Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI; Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission; Millennium Development Goals, MDGs; National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA and the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President will spend the amount of N20billion for their operations in 2015.
Of the agencies, the EFCC got the highest allocation of N9.5 billion, followed by NAEC, N1.4 billion; NIPSS came third with N1.2 billion. The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, is to spend not less than N6.9 billion within the financial year; half of the amount will also go to salary of workers in the office.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government said yesterday, that it spent N500 billion to settle debts that threatened to truncate the power sector reform, thereby clearing the way for a smooth transition in the power industry.
Supervising Minister of Information, Dr. Nuruddeen Mohammed, who made the disclosure at a briefing in Abuja, also said that government was in discussion with power generating firms to tap what he called ‘stranded power’ into the national grid.
Among the firms being consulted by the Federal Government to channel power from their facilities into the national grid are Aluminium Smelting Company of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom, which has the capacity to generate 100 Mega Watts of power; Ajaokuta Steel Company, 85Mw; Lafarge Cement, 40Mw; and Kaduna Refinery, 33.5Mw.
The Minister said that buying the additional power from the firms would help in shoring up the available power in the country and boost its productivity at all levels.
Mohammed said the government had to urgently settle with forces among the workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, to pave the way for the successful privatization of the company.
He said the workers had demanded their enormous pay-off before the sale of the old electricity entity to the successor companies.
Mohammed said: “The Federal Government expended close to N500 billion to settle debts and pay-offs to allow progress in the power sector.
“The Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has provided a N213 billion power sector intervention facility, to be disbursed to generation and distribution companies, as well as gas suppliers.
“The funds are intended to take care of legacy debts that had hampered the operations of the new players in the power industry.
“CBN, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and deposit money banks in the country have since signed a disbursement agreement in respect of the intervention fund.”
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