By Tony Ikelegbe
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan has virtually littered every available space on road junctions/roundabouts, street corners with billboards and newspapers of supposedly completed projects around the state.
His government and DESOPADEC have spent over N500 million on advert placements in an attempt to broadcast the falsehood of these phantom projects to the unsuspecting public and the federal government. Over N1 billion has also been spent in bringing senior government officials to the state in an attempt to launder the image of the failing government. But, good things speak for themselves; the projects executed and completed in Lagos state speak volumes much louder than Uduaghan’s billboards. We believe these projects would have served us all better on land rather than in billboards, newspaper pages or CNN.
The budget is the fiscal instrument for implementation of government policies and projects and therefore the ultimate tool for assessment of the overall performance of any government. For the Uduaghan government, the yearly budgetary provision is regarded as a mere annual ritual, as it is just an avenue to allocate public funds to sectors after which they are diverted to phantom projects and/or completely spirited away.
The question now begging for answer is why are projects indicated in budgets and not implemented? Is it lack of funds? Obviously no. Why has Delta State been assuming a financial insolvency status when our Actual Receipts more than meet our Actual Expenditure? Where is the balance money going to?
Records obtained from the Federal Ministry of Finance and Delta State Ministry of Economic Planning shows revenue receipts and expenditure for the past 3 and half years as follows.
YEAR RECEIPTS BUDGETED EXP ACTUAL EXP. DIFF
Jan – Sept
2007 132,968,492,04 89,660,092,831 34,951,322,263 98,017,169,778
2008 155,137,500,694 232,810,646,314 92,051,405,662 63,086,095,032
2009 168,339,224,576 168,083,331,057 Not available
2010 (Jan-Jun) 114,939,466,431 217,176,003,604 Not available
Total monies received by Delta State government from Statutory Allocation, Oil derivation, IGR, VAT, etc. from January 2007 to June 2010 is over N571,384,683,742, one begins to wonder how these monies were spent and which beneficial projects it was used on. It is also most atrocious to note that Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan single handedly authorized the disbursement of over N114 billion been amount received since the beginning of this year as no cash budget has been done in the state as at August 2010 and no virement made.
It is apparent that Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan has hijacked the state’s resources presuming Deltans are docile and dim-witted citizens hence his obnoxious display of resentment for criticism. The monthly cash budgets for the allocation of resources to various sub heads for payments/disbursement has been cancelled by Dr. Uduaghan in Delta State. Hence, payment to contractors is not possible unless you are a “slave loyalist” or one of his mole contractors who represent him. The reason The Governor has given for non-payment of certified jobs done for the government for which he has claimed ownership of is that, He (Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan) does not want to empower his enemies. Is everybody in Delta state his enemy? If he does not pay for those contracts which formed basis for the past budgets, who does he expect to pay for them?
The highest level of insult the governor has thrown at Deltans is the “Anger Management Seminar” purportedly organized for Deltans – certainly the governor knows, we Deltans are very very angry with his total presentation of a government. A state where contractors are not paid after over 2 years of job completion, teachers’ promotion arrears and welfare have not been effected for the past 3 years. Jakpa/Ekpan road of less than 8km, 4 years running and is still under construction at snail speed but now being hurriedly done as election is drawing near. Yet the Governor has embarked on the dualisation of the 143kms Ughelli/Asaba road including several bridges were over 40% of total sums have been disbursed but not up to 10% of job completed. Obviously he will require 24 years for these elephant projects to be completed. So, why tie down needed funds that could have gone into meaningful township roads/drainage construction and economic projects into these white elephant projects? Definitely, these preferred projects are his drain pipe. As at today over N30billion has been paid out for these elephant projects, which will never be completed.
A whopping N14 billion naira was appropriated for street lights, and maintenance whereas the education and health sector is comatose – dilapidated infrastructure and shortage of staff. Doctors and medical workers are currently on strike for over 9 weeks in a state where we have a medical doctor as governor! Instead of managing the situation, the good Doctor has drawn a battle line with his colleagues.
Uduaghan is propagating poverty inducing policies so that come 2011 elections, Deltans will be all too vulnerable to accept stipends and evil political inducements so as not to revolt against his return. He has craftily paralyzed businesses in Delta state and enriched a very select few “slave leaders”. The end goal – no rivalry, no questions. But would it work? Not this time!
Budgeted sums approved by the state house of assembly for some selected projects from 2007 to 2010 are as follows.
TOTAL SUM APPROPRIATED
2007 TO 2010 STATUS
1 Warri Industrial Park 3,650,000,000 Paper Work
2 Agricultural Youth Development programme 2,100,000,000 Money Disbursed to Loyalist
3 Independent Power Project 25,000,000,000 Site not known
4 Establishment of Gas utilisation scheme 1,100,000,000 No clear direction
5 Installation & Reactivation of street lights in the state 16,666,971,759 Running with the states blood
6 LED Display boards/Electronics decorations round the state 3,550,000,000 Located along busy roads
7 Jakpa/Gbokoda Road 200,000,000 Slow pace of work
8 Sapele/Abigborodo Road 3,950,000,000 No visible work
9 Asaba Airstrip 22,200,000,000 Still under construction with completion date shifted thrice now.
10 Expansion of Osubi Runway 4,502,158,208 No work done
11 Construction of Effurun/Eku road 4,900,000,000 No work done
12 Construction of Ughelli/Asaba dual carriage way 24,000,000,000 %6 completion & Fed Road
13 Construction & Equipping of Specialist Hospital, Oghara 7,700,000,000 completed
14 Construction of Governors Office (New govt house, Asaba) 6,550,000,000 Work Given urgent attention
15 Naval logistics Corps, Oghara 1,160,000,000 Fed.project.
16 Maintenace of govt. house/landscaping 420,000,000 Urgent attention given
17 Beautification and landscaping of Effurun roundabout 290,000,000 Urgent attention given
18 Warri/Effurun Water Supply scheme 4,348,181,053 No drop of water after over 4years
19 Faculty of Engineering (DELSU, Oleh Campus) 1,100,000,000 Snail speed
20. Civic/Event Centre 3,700,000,000 Urgently completed
21. 1.5km Maryam Babangida Way without drainage but with streetlight 500,000,000 Urgently completed without drainages
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