(By Basil Obasi – ABUJA)
To further strengthen its resolve towards rooting out corruption in the country, Buhari administration has given pride of place to the anti-graft agencies in the 2017 budget.
A breakdown of the budget proposal shows that a total of N31.1 billion has been set aside for anti-corruption agencies. When compared with the N27.7 billion voted for anti-corruption enforcement in the 2016 budget, that represents a 15 percent increase in the size of allocation.
Reviewing the budget document obtained by Daily Sun from the National Assembly, we found that almost all ministries, departments and agencies of government voted funds towards fighting corruption.
The core agencies saddled with the responsibility include Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC), the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Others include the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives, Public Complaint Commission, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Bureau of Public Procurement and the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Among these agencies, EFCC will receive N17.2 billion, which represents 55 per cent of the N31.1 billion cumulative allocation to anti-graft agencies.
The EFCC voted N7. 127 billion for personnel cost, N3 billion for overhead and N7.074 billion for capital expenditure.
The ICPC, meanwhile, got about N5.93 billion. N2.73 billion was allocated to CCB, and N1.09 billion to the CCT.
The budget for the Bureau of Public Procurement increased by 5% from N1.42 billion in 2016 to a total of N1.49 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
The budget for the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives decreased from N1.4 billion it got in 2016 to N1.2 billion in 2017 budget.
The sum total of the budget for core anti-graft agencies amounts to a total of N30.1 billion, while the remaining N0.99 billion represent funds earmarked for anti-corruption initiatives across other ministries, departments and agencies of government in the 2017 budget.
For instance, the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing devoted about N18.2 million, while the Niger Delta Ministry proposed to allocate N22 million to its own initiative.