The Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, on Monday asked the House of Representatives to grant him the power to arbitrarily spend funds under the controversial “security vote” scheme.
Wike, while appearing before the House Committee on FCT to defend the N1.1 trillion budget of his ministry, said he needs the security vote to tackle the insecurity currently ravaging the Nigerian capital.
The security vote is a controversial and corruption-ridden scheme often used by state governors to spend money arbitrarily without any form of transparency. Anti-corruption advocates have long argued that the security vote has become a
“As a governor, my director of SSS can meet me and say ‘We need to carry out an operation this night’. We need N30 million to carry out that operation. I don’t need to meet the accountant, all I need to say is ‘go and take money there,” Mr Wike told lawmakers.
He had presented a 2024 Statutory budget figure of One trillion trillion,one hundred and forty-seven billion,seven hundred and eighty million, six hundred and ten thousand, two hundred and eighty-three naira N1, 147, 780, 610, 283.00 for the Territory’s total recurrent and capital expenditure as well as expected total revenue to both Chambers of the NASS, with an appeal for synergy in achieving the development of the Unity City to its envisaged status of a modern city comparable to other world capitals.
The Minister at separate budget defence sessions with the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on the the FCT appraised highlights of the Territory’s 2023 Appropriation before presenting this year’s Statutory budget proposals.
The Minister explained to the lawmakers that the FCT 2024 total budget figure comprised of Distributive and non Distributive Revenues.
According to Woke, Distributive Revenues, are revenue items, the expenditure of which are distributed across activities of the FCT Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs), while Non-Distributive Revenue is the inflow of funds for dedicated purposes such as servicing the China Exim Bank loan for the Abuja Light Rail Project, UBEB Counter Fund, Earnings for COVID 19, SUKUK Loan and the likes.
“Accordingly the Non-Distributive revenue heads are not available for general expenditure as they are intended for specific projects” the Minister added.
Sectoral highlights of the budget proposal include infrastructural sector of Roads, Districts Development and apublic Buildings and provision of Utilities.
Accordingly, the FCDA is earmarked N457 Billion for Infrastructure development around the Federal Capital City FCC, out of which the sum of N282 Billion is for ongoing projects and N175 Billion is earmarked for critical new project.
The FCT Minister noted that the supervisory role of the Council Services Secretariat of the Area council’s on the Territory towards ensuring efficient service delivery will be further mobilized by a sum of N4, 152, 146, 290.00.
In his contribution at the budget defence exercise, chairman House of Representatives Committee Hon. Mukthar Betara implored the FCT to empower the Area Council’s with funds to see to the developments in their respective domains.
