How Governor Emmanuel squandered ₦22.609billion to run Govt House, spent ₦35.991billion on AG’s Office
… ₦2.106billion on Education
… ₦3.752billion on Health
… ₦10.388billion on SSG’s Office
The corrected version of the audited financial report of the Akwa Ibom State Government for the year ended December 31, 2019 published by the office of the State Accountant General has revealed how Governor Udom Emmanuel squandered a whopping ₦22.609billion to run the Government House.
According to the report, out of the N24.100billion budgeted for the running of the government house in 2019, the sum of N22.609billion was released representing 91% of the total amount budgeted for that office.
The report also shows that the office of the State Accountant General received N35.991billion out of the N50.971billion budgeted which represents 90% of the total amount budgeted for that office.
Shockingly, the report indicates that the State Ministry of Education received a paltry N2.106billion for its capital projects out of the N13.7billion budgeted representing 13% of the total amount budgeted for that ministry.
Findings also show that the State Ministry of Health received only N3.752billion out of the N 12.500billion budgeted for the Ministry representing 15%.
The State Ministry of Agriculture which needed more financial support in order to boost food production in the State received a paltry sum of N3.668billion out of the N13.163billion representing 13% of the total amount budgeted for that ministry.
Whereas the office of the Secretary to the State Government SSG, received N10.388billion out of the N10.700billion budgeted for that office representing 99% of the total amount budgeted. While the office of the State Deputy Governor received N43.2million out of the N630million budgeted in 2019.
Other sectors like the State Ministry of Works received only N64.078billion out of the N 147.461billion budgeted for that sector representing 43%.
Analysts are of the view that the poor funding of the Works Ministry was responsible for the large number of abandoned road projects across the State because of non-payment of contractors.
Sadly, the report further shows that the State Ministry of Science and Technology received just N49.255million out of the N2.8billion budgeted for that Ministry in the year under review. From the report, the State Fire Service did not receive any money from the State Government out of the N300million budgeted for that department in 2019.
Finance experts and citizens of the State who spoke to The Evangelist have expressed concern over the misappropriation of state’s funds in areas that do not benefit majority of the people.
This misappropriation they argued, was deliberately done to loot the State Treasury by government officials while the people continue to be impoverished as many projects that would have impacted positively on the lives of many citizens were not given priority by the state government.
Source:The Evangelist Newspaper
