By Jonathan Ugbal
The Cross River State Government has budgeted five billion Naira to spend on “contingencies,” and “landscaping of Governors office” in Calabar.
Of the sum, Governor Ben Ayade has four billion Naira to spend for “contigencies.”
The budget subhead is tagged “His Excellency Contingencies” and falls under the recurrent expenditure of the office of the Chief of Staff.
In the 2018 budget, five billion Naira was appropriated for this item.
Meanwhile, the landscaping of the Governor’s office which is a capital expenditure item is expected to cost one billion Naira.
A similar figure was budgeted for the same item in 2018.
CrossRiverWatch had reported that the 2019 budget estimates provide a total of NGN1,420,000,000 (one billion, four hundred and twenty million Naira) for Governor Ben Ayade’s travel and transport for the 2019 financial year.
Of this figure, his local travel and transport is expected to gulp NGN800,000,000 (eight hundred million) while NGN620,000,000 is provided for the sub head “Oversea Travel and Transport.”
This breakdown will continue for 21days with budget experts analysis of the figures beginning from Monday.