The Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, and his predecessor, Nasir El-Rufai, both of the All Progressives Congress (APC) spent N3,075,259,097.68 on miscellaneous including refreshments and meals between April 1, and June 30, 2023, according to the state budget performance report.
SaharaReporters observed that a breakdown of expenditure according to the Kaduna State Budget Performance for 2Q of 2023, shows that refreshment and meals alone gulped N38,598,091 in the three months, while honorarium and sitting allowance took N170,666,642.50.
After spending two terms in office, former governor El-Rufai handed over power to Uba Sani on May 29, 2023, in an election which is still being contested in court. The period under review covered the end of El-Rufai's tenure and the beginning of Sani's.
Meanwhile, the state listed “Publicity and Advertisement to have gulped N364,741,298.06” while medical expenses took N47,391,250.06 as shown in page 24 of the Budget Performance documents.
Also, cleaning and fumigation in three months took N631,584,751.
Apart from spending N2,393,918,543.71 on the governor's office within the period under review as shown on page 14 of the budget performance documents, an additional N1,887,371,460.23 was spent on overhead on the same governor's office with another N417,244,967.08 on capital expenditure as shown on pages 16 and 19 respectively.
Within the period under review, the government under El-Rufai and Sani spent N736,803,873.36 on the office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), while N1,401,201,742.60 was spent on internal security.
The government also spent N76,947,440.00 to pay political office appointees their severance package as shown on page 22 of the budget performance documents. Also, N20,951,474.70 was spent on office stationery/computer consumables while N15,079,405.00 was spent on printing of non-security documents within the three months as shown on page 23 of the documents.
N44,935,081.02 was blown up on newspapers, magazines/periodicals, robe& outfit allowance.
As shown on page 25 of the budget performance documents, the state government spent N413,334,386 million on entertainment and hospitality, while N429,558,711.35 was spent on his appointed committees and commission and N83,400,113.60 was spent on protocol support services within the period under review.
The State Government blew N56,150,764.90 on fuel and lubricants. A breakdown shows that fuel for vehicles costs N10,172,216.40 while fuel for plants/generators costs N45,978,548.50. A total of N10,878,255.27 was spent on consultancy and professional services as shown on page 24.
According to the budget performance report, 2023 quarter 2, published on the State Government website, the government spent a whopping N666,811,104.80 on what it tagged as a food and nutrition programme while N14,644,500 was spent on the hosting of conferences, conventions & others within the three months under review.
Despite the economic crunch ravaging the country with many Nigerians including millions of Kaduna citizens living around the poverty level, the government spent a whopping sum of N1,082,654,446.45 on the purchase of office furniture and fittings as shown on page 26; while a purchase of computers for the three months gulps N690,310,922.16. Purchase of vehicle with no unit number gulps N613,039,774.05 and N117,814,571.24 was spent on purchase of Aero spares/maintenance.
The government as shown on page 27 of the budget performance report documents, spent N1,242,573,584.52 on the construction of traffic/street lights while N6,889,995,577.47 was spent on rehabilitation/repairs of public schools in three months of El-Rufai's exit. N458,121,672.52 was on rehabilitation/repairs of office buildings.
On research and development, the exit government of El-Rufai spent a whopping N9,756,924,734.58 while computer software gulped N338,391,552.32.