The
drama surrounding the 2016 budget may not have seen its last days, as
two versions of the budget have been released as the amended copy.
Buhari signing the 2016 budget into law
According to a new report, two versions of the 2016 National budget have been released as 'the amended copy',
but the drama surrounding the controversial budget may not have seen
its last days following agitations from civil society organisation and
concerned Nigerians that the budget office uploaded the full version of
the 'final amended' 2016 budget.
The budget office also uploaded the same on a ministry-by-ministry
basis, showing a few discrepancies in the budget of the ministry of
solid minerals. Prime among the discrepancies was the inclusion of
N795,234,275 for a website update for the ministry.
From Full version of the signed Budget
It was learnt that in the full budget, N795.2 million was included for the website update, alongside another N49,764,000 for 'upgrading
and maintenance of SIGTIM title management software and mco’s official
website; development of in-house support software for database cleaning
and synchronization; internet/web access services (bandwidth and domain
subscription)'.
However, in the ministry’s budget, N795.2 million was missing,
while the N49.7 was retained. Some other items raised were retained in
the signed budget, including the N3,914,197,062 for 'annual routine maintenance of villa facilities by JBN'.
According to the budget, the presidency will still be spending N340
million in purchasing BMW saloon cars, while N500 billion set aside for
vulnerable Nigerians.
Recal that the budget has been fraught with controversy. It went
missing, was padded, and eventually scrutinised to rid it of all sorts
of errors, but these discrepancies seem unending, as the final copy has
now shown.
On the bright side, the N60 billion 'rail construction of the
coastal railway project from Lagos to Shagamu to Ijebu Ode to Ore to
Benin city to Sapele to Warri to Yenegoa (with siding to Otuoke) to Port
Harcourt to Aba to Uyo to Calabar (with branch line from Benin city to
Abudu to Agbor to Uko to Ogwashiuku to Asaba to Onitsha including the
Onitsha railway bridge) rail line project' was included in the signed budget.
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