State House food budget grows by 20% in three years

Budget allocations for food and catering supplies for the offices of the President, Vice-President, and State House headquarters rose by 20 per cent from 2022 to 2024.

Although the allocations remained static at N702.95m for 2022 and 2023, it grew to N845.07m in 2024.

While the office of the President allocated a total of N856.57m for the three years, about N650.84m was earmarked for the Vice President’s office for the period. Budget documents showed that the State House Headquarters also earmarked N743.55m for the three years.

On November 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu presented the 2024 appropriations bill to a joint session of the 10th National Assembly in Abuja.

On January 1, 2024, he signed a N28.7tn budget into law after the Senate’s approval. This was N1.2tn higher than the budget he proposed to the National Assembly.

The Senate had increased the budget by N1.2tn, moving the budget from N27.5tn to N28.7tn.

A breakdown of the budget for food and catering supplies showed that N245.14m was reserved for the State House administration, N301.14m for the office of the President and N156.66m for the office of the Vice President.

The allocation remained the same for 2023.

However, the 2024 budget allocated N253.27m for the State House headquarters, N254.27m for the President’s office and N337.52m for the office of the Vice President.

Checks by The Punch on GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses Federal Government’s spendings, revealed that the State House administration disbursed approximately 566.22m on the supply of rice and other food items between March and September 2024.

It paid part of the money through its transit account and other amounts to three beneficiaries, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Retail Limited.

On March 1, the State House paid the sum of N275,633,850 to Samdan Global Construction and Resources Limited for the supply of 1,095 bags of 50kg rice and 4,095 cartons of seasoning cubes.

On the same day, it paid another N280,590,000 to Victor Adeks Nigeria Limited for the supply of an additional 3,000 bags of 50kg rice.

During his presentation on the 2023/2024 budget implementation on October 8, the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Mr Olufunso Adebiyi, said the State House had achieved 43 per cent implementation of capital projects for 2024 and an impressive 99 per cent implementation in overhead expenditure.

The permanent secretary welcomed an earlier increase in allocation to the State House in the 2024 appropriation, citing the considerable demand from various cost centres during the challenging fiscal year.

“This has gone a long way in enhancing our performance as an important arm of government, especially with regards to the welfare of staff and various capital projects such as the renovation of the residential quarters of the President, Aguda House, computerisation and digitalisation of the State House, construction of an office complex, replacement of operational vehicles, and others,” he said.

The chief accounting officer further presented the 2023 budget and supplementary budget performances.

He disclosed that N1.65bn was approved for personnel costs in 2023, of which N1.65bn was spent, leaving a balance of N439,433.66.

For overhead expenditure in 2023, N8.29bn was appropriated, and N8.27bn was expended, leaving an outstanding balance of N14.5m, marking a 99.82 per cent budget implementation.

Regarding total capital expenditure for 2023, Adebiyi said N11.2bn was approved, with N10.9bn spent, representing an overall performance of 98 per cent.

In an earlier interview with The Punch, the Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said government spending should be regulated to reflect the dire economic situation of the country.

“We all know that, until now, there is so much profligacy in government. And until we have a new constitution that regulates government spending, we will still be battling with the problem,” he argued.

At the time of filing this report, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, was not reachable for comments.

However, in an earlier explainer, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Temitope Ajayi, argued that the allocations were not for the consumption of the President or his deputy alone.

Ajayi wrote, “When the State House makes provision for vehicles, it is reported that the President will use all the vehicles or eat all the food when a provision is made for food and catering services.

“A President and Vice President cannot, for any reason, spend N20m to eat in a year if it is about the food they will eat as first and second families. How much food can a person really eat?

“In actual fact, such budgetary provisions are made to accommodate many state events, meetings, hosting of VIPs, foreign dignitaries, and even visits by other Heads of State and bilateral and multilateral meetings that the State House will deal with in a given year.”