The Interview Editors
The Kogi State government says it will spend N400m for sanitation and janitorial services of the State Government House in 2020.
The state government had on May 21 released what it termed the Prosperity Budget, which according to the governor, Yahaya Bello, was reviewed downward to accommodate the realities a COVID-19 economy.
“The State has carefully assessed the overall effects of COVID-19 on our revenue profile through a technical committee and prioritised Health, Education, Agriculture and key recurrent services.
“In the light of the above, the State Budget for 2020 has now been REVISED to N102, 123,091,931 from the earlier Approved Budget of N176, 123,091,931. The reduction in the budget size is N74, 000,000,000 representing 42 per cent,’ Bello had said.
“We shall continue to respond creatively to the economic and allied challenges posed by Covid-19 to our society in order to maximise the welfare of our people,” Bello had said.
However, a summary of the revised budget, tagged; Budget of Prosperity, seen by The Interview showed that sanitation and janitorial services of the Government House alone would gulp the sum of N400m in 2020.
The same Government House where Governor Yahaya Bello currently operates from will also gulp another N200m for remodeling, according to the revised budget.
Further checks by The Interview showed that the Government House got more funding than all the other ministries in the state in the revised 2020 budget.
It was allocated N17, 787,235,011, the highest for a single component in the budget.
The Education Ministry got N17,520,530,646, the Health Ministry got N11,914,360,693 and Agriculture Ministry got N4,114,075,832.
When compared with what other sectors were allocated, the Kogi State Government House got over N260m more than the Education Ministry, over N5bn more than the Health Ministry and over 13bn more than the Agriculture Ministry.
With Kogi State’s annual Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) estimated to be N13.4bn in the revised budget summary, the Government House will spend over N17bn, which is N4bn more than the state’s annual IGR.
All efforts The Interview made on Wednesday to speak with the state’s commissioner of finance, budget and planning, Asiwaju Asiru Idris, failed as he did not pick calls and also didn’t respond to text message and WhatsApp messages seeking clarification on the revised budget.
