An audit of the 2021 budget by BudgIT revealed 316 duplicated projects valued N39.5bn had been allocated to different ministries and agencies.
The organisation revealed that 115 of the duplicated projects were discovered in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Health.
The Civil Society Organisation based in Lagos described the development as disturbing in a statement issued by its Communications Associate, Iyanu Fatoba.
The organisation said the Federal Government did not respond to the allegation of duplication of projects as repeated efforts to get the response of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning were futile.
The advocacy organisation, in its statement, said, “Our investigations into the 2021 budget revealed at least 316 duplicated capital projects worth N39.5bn, with 115 of those duplicate projects occurring in the Ministry of Health.
“This is very disturbing especially considering the health infrastructure deficit and the raging COVID-19 pandemic affecting Nigeria.”
“The Federal College of Forestry in Ibadan in Oyo State got N50m for the construction of street lights in Edo State. These are aberrations that need to be corrected.”
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BudgIT also called on the government to audit security spending and close loopholes for corruption in the budget process.
The Chief Executive Officer of BuDgIT, Gabriel Okeowo, said, “ The year 2021 has been a horrifying year for Nigerians concerning security as the country combats mutating forms of crime and terror across all its 36 states.
“This is despite allocating over N10.02tn to security between 2015 and 2021. In the 2021 budget, the entire security sector’s allocation was N1.97tn, representing a 14 per cent increase from the N1.78tn allocated in 2020.”
The firm stated that increased resources allocated to the security sector meant that less money was available to develop other sectors.
It therefore noted that there was a need for more scrutiny of how these allocations were budgeted and spent.
