A lot of people were outraged after learning details of the federal government’s budget for 2016. Now the presidency has slashed a portion of the budget.
A fresh copy of the budget uploaded to Budget Office’s website shows that the allocation for cars has been cut by over 80%. The government will now spend only N1.34 billion to purchase five BMW saloon cars, jeeps and buses for the State House this year.
There were other cuts regarding allocation for vehicles compared to the original budget. N7.52 billion had originally been earmarked to purchase new vehicles, including a 16-seater Toyota Hiace coaster buses for the State House. There was also an additional allocation to spend another N500 million on more vehicles.
People believed the government was being wasteful for wanting to spend so much on new vehicles at this time when the economy is in trouble and oil prices are collapsing. Some compared the proposed spending to findings in 2013 that the government spent N225 million purchasing armoured cars for Stella Oduah’s use as aviation minister.
This 2016 budget itself has been a very controversial subject lately. Last Thursday Senate president Bukola Saraki claimed the presidency substituted the original copy of the budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly in December with a new version.
Certain budget documents were declared missing last week, and the Senate and presidency have since taken turns to blame each other for the embarrassing situation.
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