Adamawa SSGs Office Gets Same Allocation As Agric, Water Resources, Housing, Youth and Sports Ministries Put Together
BY MOHAMMED ISMAIL
The office of the secretary to the Adamawa state government has got as much allocation as four ministries from 2015 when the administration was ushered to date.
The ministries are: Ministry of Agriculture; Ministry of housing and urban development, ministry of water resources and ministry of youth and sports.
Our findings indicated that the office of the SSG has received allocations to the tune of N19.02 billion naira from 2015 to date which nearly tallied with the sum of N19.56 billion allocated to the four putative ministries during the period under review.
A budget data of Adamawa state in the period under review sighted by our correspondent indicated that in 2015, the office of the SSG was allocated the sum of N3.38 billion as recurrent budget and N187,000,000 as capital budget.
The office also got the princely sum of N2.82 billion as recurrent budget and corresponding N2.68 billion as capital budget in 2016 just as the sum of N3.1 billion and N1.75 billion were budgeted to the office as recurrent and capital budgets respectively in 2017.
The sum of N3.39 billion and N1.65 billion were similarly earmarked as recurrent and capital budgets of the SSGs office in the year 2018.
In cumulation, the budgetary provision to the office of the SSG from 2015 to date approximated to the sum of N19.01 billion.
The ministry of Agriculture on the other hand got N415,920,600 and 493,351,000 as recurrent and capital budgets respectively in 2015 just as it got the sum of N326,640,400 and N1.2 billion as recurrent and capital budgets respectively in 2016.
It also got the sum of N315,575,817 and N1.75 billion as recurrent and capital budgets in 2017 just as it got N347,133,398 and N407,898 625 in 2018 as recurrent and capital estimates in 2018 respectively.
In a nutshell, the ministry managed to get the sum of N7.86 billion despite the critical role it ought to play as the major money spinner especially with the diversification mantra of the Buhari administration and the need to reinvent the economy in the wake of the deadly Boko Haram insurgency, which resulted in the total pulverization of the state’s economy.
In similar passion, the ministry of water resources got the sum of N521,600,000 and N266,733,000 as capital and recurrent budgets respectively in 2015. In 2016, the ministry scooped the sum of N492,740,000 and N217,640,400 as capital and recurrent budgets respectively, while it got N1.3 billion and N247,852,330 as capital and recurrent budgets in 2017 respectively.
The ministry also got the sum of N63,000,000 and N272,637,563 in 2018 as capital and recurrent budgets respectively.
In summation, the ministry got the sum of N3.56 billion from 2015 and 2018.
The ministry of urban and housing development was allocated a capital budget of N365,000,000 and recurrent budget of N182,584,700 in 2015 just as it got N235,000,000 and N113,899,000 as capital and recurrent budgets in 2016 respectively.
The ministry also got N900,000,000 and N125,288,900 as capital and recurrent budgets in 2017 respectively and another N550,000,000 and N137,817,790 as capital and recurrent estimates respectively in 2018.
In summation, the ministry got the sum of N2.61 in the period under review.
The ministry of youth and sports got a recurrent and capital allocation of N110,000,000 and N987,906,595 respectively in 2015 just as it got N93,342,200 and N1.20 billion as recurrent and capital budgets in 2016 respectively.
The ministry also went home with N98,342,200 and N2.25 billion in 2017 as recurrent and capital estimates respectively while it got a recurrent budget of N108,176,420 as recurrent budget with zero allocation as capital budget in 2018.
The ministry got a total sum of N5.54 billion in the period under review. The hefty provisions to the SSGs office has generated a lot of concern about whether due process has been followed in the process of allocating and expending the huge sum just as questions were similarly asked about whether the little allocations made to the other ministries were judiciously expended as there seemed to be sharp discrepancies in the allocations and the physical infrastructure on ground across the various ministries.