State House votes N3.3bn for vehicles, travels in 2018

With details of 2018 budget proposals presented to National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday emerging, it has been discovered that sum of N3,337,334,229 has been voted by the State House to fuel vehicles, purchase new ones and travel locally and internationally.

This is as the headquarters of Federal Ministry of Transport plans to spend N10.1 billion to buy new vehicles and expend N230 million on anniversaries and celebrations.

According to the document, President Buhari will spend N1.001 billion on travel and transport, broken down into local travel and transport- N250,021,595; and international travel and transport- N751,296,576.

Also, N907,102,110 will be deployed to phased replacement of motor vehicles, spares and tyres in the Presidential CVU, security/police escort and State House operations.

Another N83,774,000 is being proposed for the purchase of tyres for bullet proof vehicles, plain Toyota cars, CCU vehicles, platform trucks, Land Cruiser and Prado Jeeps, Hilux, Peugeot 607, ambulances and other utility and operational vehicles.

Another sub-head proposes N165,072,123 for maintenance of motor vehicle/transport equipment.

And N132.1 million will be spent to fuel and lubricate the vehicles.

The Vice President’s office on the other hand may eventually spend N301,035,593 on travel and transport if National Assembly acquiesces.

Of this amount, N217,060,883 will fund international trips while the remaining N83,974,710 will be expended on local tours and four motorcycles will be bought for N1.6 million.

On his own part, the Chief Security Officer to the President (CSO) is asking for N653,611,104 to purchase security and operational motor vehicles.

The office may also spend N19,189,500 to maintain motor vehicle and transport equipment as well as N61,710,000 on fuel and lubricants.

For the State House Lagos Liaison Office, N2,299,445 will go to local travel and transport; N4,582,717 on maintenance of motor vehicle/transport equipment; and N3,839,908 to fuel motor vehicles.

The headquarters of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi’s Federal Ministry of Transport has also requested N10,120,000,000 to purchase motor vehicles and another N230,000,000 to mark some important anniversaries.

Further perusal of the budget document showed that the ministry, all things being equal will spend N200 million to host the 2018 Edition of Southern Sahara Africa Transport Policy (SSATP) annual International Conference in Abuja.

And despite government’s decision to privatise all its tourism assets especially in hotels, the ministry plans to construct a transit hotel at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

Ongoing railway modernization project will also gulp N170,041,649,443; N17,542,617,498 has been proposed for spending on construction and provision of airport/aerodromes; and N100 million to monitor and evaluate the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).