The Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti is under fire for spending N927million within three months on refreshment/meals, settlement of honorarium, allowances, welfare packages for the eggheads.
A copy of the state budget performance report titled “Abia State Third Quarter (July – September) 2023 Budget Performance” posted on the state government’s website. (https://abiastate.gov.ng/abia-state-3rd-quarter-2023-budget-performance-report-2/) made the revelation.
“This Q3 and Year to date performance is assessed against the revised 2023 Budget that covers the Original Budget plus a n Amendment Virement sum of N22,263,269,900 as summarised below,” it read.
“This Budget Performance Report is produced by the Abia State Planning Commission, Budget Department/Office of the Accountant General, Accounts Production Department and published on the Abia State website.”
The report says Otti’s government spent N223,389,889.84 on refreshment/meals, while N305,400,000.00 was spent on honorarium and sitting allowance for government officials within July and September, 2023.
The Abia State government also claimed it spent N397,520,734.00 on welfare packages.
The document also showed N737,922,661.25 was spent to buy motor vehicles but the quantity and those the vehicles were bought for were never stated.
N362,804,050.00 was also spent by the Abia government to purchase trucks and another N400,890,000.00 was used for the purchase of buses.
The document also claimed N252.4m was used to run the Deputy Governor’s office for 3 months.
In a contrasting development, the report showed that a paltry N25 million was spent by the government on repair of public schools in the state.
