Cross River Government Receives Knocks For Prioritizing Office Of CoS And Neglect Of Key Sectors

By Sylvia Akpan

Cross River State Governor, Sen. Bassey Otu, has received knocks from Policy Alert, a civil society organization, for prioritizing the office of his Chief of Staff, Emmanuel Ironbar over the entire social sectors in the State’s budget implementation during the third quarter of 2023.

This was contained in a statement signed by its Program Officer, Fiscal Reforms and Anti-Corruption, Faith Paulinus, dated November 2, 2023, the organization which works to promote fiscal and ecological justice in the Niger Delta, noted that “it is disturbing that expenditure in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor which is at best quasi-formal and personal to the Governor is being prioritized over key sectors of the State.”

The statement, made public after Policy Alert reviewed the Cross River State Third Quarter Budget Performance Report 2023 (July -September), observed that while the entire Health, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Humanity and Social Welfare, had zero capital releases, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor had a total release of N5.77bn, comprising about 25 percent of all capital releases for the quarter.

“It is also questionable that while the office of the CoS had such huge releases during the period under review, the Ministry of Works responsible for roads and other public works had only a paltry capital release of N90.29m, the Education sector drew only N13.7m and the entire Social Sector N1.46bn” the organization stated.

“Spending N5.77bn for the Office of the Chief of Staff out of N23.21bn spent across sectors during the quarter is a red flag. This has become an ugly trend in recent years. It is also on record that in the second quarter of 2023 (April -June), this Office spent N11.9bn”, the statement added.

“We are constrained to demand a breakdown of the specific capital projects executed by the Office of the Chief of Staff.

“Contrary to the Governor’s campaign promises to reduce the cost of governance, a review of the expenditure pattern showed that at N16.09bn, recurrent expenditure is 125 percent higher than the capital expenditure of N7.12bn for the period, a clear indication that human and infrastructure development was not being prioritized.”

Policy Alert further called on the State Government to explain why the Cross River State House of Assembly had zero releases for their personnel, overhead, and capital expenditure within the period.

“It is strange that an accountability institution such as the House of Assembly did not receive a dime for three months whereas other arms of government have. Withholding releases to the State legislature, even inadvertently, could be misconstrued as an attempt to frustrate its oversight responsibility.”