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How we spent N453bn on Sure-P — Presidency

By BusinessNews Staff on October 16, 2013

The Presidency on Monday explained how it spent the some of N453.52bn budgeted for the Subsidy Re-Investment Programme in the last two years.

The breakdown of the amount showed that in 2012, N180bn was budgeted for the programme while N273.52bn was budgeted for it in 2013.

But out of the FG’s N180bn budgeted for the 2012, only N86.5bn was spent while the remaining balance of N93.5bn was carried over into the 2013 budget.

A document obtained from the office of the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in Abuja, indicated that the Federal Government spent N38.44bn on social safety like health, mass transit, community services and graduate internship scheme in 2012.

But in 2013, the amount increased to N40.83 bn.

The document also showed that N21.70bn was spent for the augmentation of the East-West Road sections 1-4 in the Niger Delta. A year later, the amount increased to N42.27 bn.

On works, which was mainly on roads and bridges like the Abuja-Lokoja Road, Kano-Maiduguri Road and Oweto Bride, the government spent N85.50bn while it spent N111.50bn on the same project in 2013.

It was also shown that on transportation (rail) like Lagos-Kano, Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri, the government spent N1bn in 2012, but went ahead to spend N1.5bn in the following year.

Explaining the document, Okupe said that Federal Government received 41 per cent of the total Sure-P funds while all the states and local governments received the remaining 59 per cent.

Okupe, who carpeted the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for criticising the implementation of the programme, asked the leader of the All Progressives Congress to ask governors in the opposition to publish all the money they received and the projects for which the money was spent.

[Punch]

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