Despite a yearly allocation for new vehicles, the presidency has claimed that some of them being used for daily operations in the State House are old since they were purchased as far back as 1999.
The Permanent Secretary, Mr. Jalal Arabi, who led a team of officials to appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Special Duties to defend the 2020 budget proposals of the State House said there was an urgent need to replace those vehicles which he claimed had become very difficult to maintain.
“With the release of funds in 2018, some of the vehicles, especially security vehicles, were replaced and spares purchased, but we are still nowhere near our optimal level since no vehicles were purchased this year (2019),” Arabi said.
According to him, “the proposals are in line with our provisions in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) document, discussed and agreed with the Budget Office of the Federation, and is to be implemented over a three-year period.”
A statement by the Deputy Director, Information, Attah Esa, yesterday explained that N6.569 billion was proposed for capital expenditure, representing a 5.5 per cent reduction in the capital budget proposal for 2019 expenditure of the seat of government.
The statement further explained that the Chairman of the committee, Samaila Suleiman, while expressing satisfaction with the presentation, assured that the panel would carefully consider it.
However, details gleaned from previously reported records showed that President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2015 proposed to spend N18.1 billion for the 2016 budget to run the State House, an amount that was N11.5 billion more than what his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, spent in 2015.
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