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The Federal Government budgeted N1,001,318,171 for President Muhammadu Buhari’s local and international travels in the proposed 2019 budget.
The budget proposes N250,021,595 for the President’s local trips and N751,296,576 for him to travel internationally.
Meanwhile, N83,974,710 was budgeted for Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s local travel, while N217,060,883 was proposed for his international trips.
Under foodstuff/catering materials supplies, N98,306,492 was budgeted for the President and N50,888,218 for the Vice-President.
The Federal Government also proposed N416,668,229 for the construction of the presidential wing of the State House Medical Centre out of the Presidency’s total estimate of N49, 307,859,794 in the 2019 budget proposal.
Aside from this, N823,441,666 was proposed for the State House Medical Centre, including drugs and medical supplies (N208,350,424).
Meanwhile, the State House also budgeted N36, 787,354 for drugs and medical supplies, and N51,821,160 for medical expenses.
In the 2018 budget, the Presidency had proposed N1,030,458,453 for the State House clinic after the President’s wife, Mrs Aisha Buhari, criticised the medical centre for not having an “ordinary syringe.”
In the 2017 budget, N3.2bn had also been allocated for the upgrade of the state clinic, including “the completion of ongoing work as well as procurement of drugs and other medical equipment.”
The President and his deputy are also to spend over N7.5bn this year on “operations” and maintenance of office buildings, the breakdown of the 2019 budget showed.
The breakdown, which The PUNCH obtained on Monday night, indicated that the entire State House was allocated N49.3bn for general services, covering capital, recurrent and overhead costs.
However, the President’s office was given a dedicated vote of N10bn for the running of his office, out of which N7.5bn went for operations.
To maintain presidential office buildings will cost N4.7bn this year.
Similarly, the President’s direct overhead cost is N1.3bn, while his capital spending will consume another N416.6m, bringing the total figure for “operations” alone to N1.7bn.
On his part, Osinbajo is to spend N591.8m on operations.
Out of the figure, N448.6m goes into overhead costs, while the balance of N143.2m will be spent on capital provisions under operations.
A further breakdown of the presidential budget showed that the Presidency would buy vehicles worth N607.1m this year.
Aside from the N4.7bn budgeted for the maintenance of office buildings, the Presidential residential buildings will be rehabilitated with another N140.4m.
The item titled ‘Refreshments/Meals’ has an allocation of N135.6m and an additional N25.6m, meaning a total N161.2m.
Similarly, a provision of N65.4m was made for the animals in the State House for their “conservation.”
[Punch]
