The high budget of the State House, Abuja has been attributed to the current economic situation in the country by the Permanent Secretary, Engr. Olufunso Adebiyi.
Engr. Adebiyi gave the exchange rate of the naira, ageing equipment, cost of vehicles and engagement of more hands as some reasons why the budget went up.
While defending the 2024 budget proposals of the State House before the Senate Committee on Special Duties, Engr. Adebiyi said as a matter of reality, there are many things that affect the budget.
He said one of the factors is the exchange rate of some of the things they buy. Second is as part of the drive of President Bola Tinubu “in ensuring service delivery, accountability and fast racking infrastructural development, the number of persons appointed appears high. He selected very competent hands from various sectors to join his team.
He said apart from ministers who have targets to meet, he appointed SSAs to serve as watchdogs to ensure compliance with standing instructions. This, he said was part of what makes the cost of their budget to be high.
In addition to that , the Permanent Secretary said the cost of fuel has consequential effect on cost of operations in the State House.
“Not only that, age of the vehicles has serious impact. Any new vehicle you buy, the first five years you will not do any repairs, only routine maintenance, but as it gets old the cost of maintenance increases.
The committee wanted to know why performance of capital expenditure for 2023 was still zero a few weeks to the end of the financial year, Engr. Adebiyi’s explanation that that most of the projects have been executed, but it is when are paid for that it will be recorded as completed did not sound convincing.
He said, for example, the procurement process for some items started in July and some of the vehicles have been supplied, but until payments are made before they said to be executed.
The committee also wondered why the State House Clinic meet the health needs of the presidency, not to talk of serving other citizens as done in other countries, even in Africa.
