Governor Dikko Umaru Radda Left Katsina N175 Million Local Medical Vote Untouched for Nine Months While Welfare Packages Gulped N223.9 Million and Refreshment and Meals Swallowed N517.9 Million

Nine months into the year, the Katsina State Government under Governor Dikko Umaru Radda has not spent one kobo of the N175,000,000 it voted for local medical expenses, while N223,882,054.97 has already been consumed on welfare packages and N517,924,418.67 already eaten up by refreshment and meals.

Findings by SecretsReporters show a government whose spending energy runs in one direction only, towards its own comfort.

The state’s total budget is N897,865,078,282.05, total revenue received by the end of the third quarter was N424,822,062,676.80, a performance of 47.3 percent, and total expenditure was N361,722,773,887.45 in the nine months.

On line 22021004, Medical Expenses, Local, carries an original vote of N175,000,000, a revised vote of the same N175,000,000, and against both of them, nothing, no third quarter spending, no year to date spending, a performance of 0.0 percent, with the entire N175,000,000 still sitting untouched at the end of September.

On line 22021007, Welfare Packages, carries a vote of N268,610,372, of which N223,882,054.97 had been consumed by the end of the third quarter, a performance of 83.3 percent, leaving a balance of only N44,728,317.03 with a full quarter of the year still to run.

On line 22021001, Refreshment and Meals, the vote that began the year at N696,400,958.66 was raised along the way to N847,713,758.66, and N517,924,418.67 of it had been spent by the end of September, a performance of 61.1 percent on the business of eating and drinking.

On line 22021014, a head simply called Annual Budget Expenses and Administration, carries a vote of N270,000,000, of which N260,000,000 had been consumed in the nine months, a performance of 96.3 percent, the fastest burning line in this stretch, with only N10,000,000 left standing.

A separate line, 22021050, Medical Expenses, International, was voted at N500,000,000, of which N179,484,718.00 had been spent by the end of the third quarter, so the one medical head in complete paralysis is the local one, the head that answers for treatment at home.

The debt figures tell their own story of a government borrowing and paying at speed. The foreign principal vote on short term borrowings, line 22060301, began the year at N9,076,177,686.73 and was doubled in the course of the year to N19,076,177,686.73, and N15,462,540,487.05 of it had already been repaid by the end of September, a performance of 81.1 percent.

In all, public debt charges, line 2206, consumed N24,241,589,207.98 in the nine months, foreign principal, foreign interest, domestic principal and domestic interest together, drawn from a revised provision of N30,426,679,083.64.

Government House, the seat of Governor Radda’s administration, was handed a revenue vote of N13,508,333,333.33 for the year and collected N52,476,819.95 of it in nine months, a performance of 0.4 percent, while its spending ran into billions.

Repairs and renovation of the Governor’s Lodge, under the Department of Inter-Governmental Affairs, carries a vote of N50,000,000, original and revised, and against it no spending at all, a performance of 0.0 percent, the whole sum unspent at the end of the third quarter.

Maintenance of Government House, carried by the Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport, was voted N500,000,000, and the spending against it in nine months is N16,197,000, a performance of 3.2 percent, leaving N483,803,000 of the provision untouched.

For Government House as a whole, the revised budget is N35,970,986,156.05 and actual spending was N12,868,502,131.40 by the end of September, a performance of 35.8 percent, money that moved through the Governor’s own establishment in the same nine months when the local medical vote did not move at all.

Follow NewsNGR on WhatsApp: join the channel for every exclusive the moment it publishes.