The Federal Government has slashed the budget proposed by the Nigeria Police Force by N92.9bn, a situation which the security outfit has warned may frustrate its efforts towards effectively tackling the growing insecurity in the country.
The PUNCH reports that the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba made this known to the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Police Affairs on Tuesday behind closed doors while defending the proposed budget of the NPF in the 2023 Appropriation Bill.
Baba, decried the slashing of outfit’s proposed budget by the Budget Office of the Federation from N889.6m to N796.7m, warning of its impact on the security outfit and its consequence for the country.
The police blamed the reduction largely on the envelope budgeting system of the government and urged the National Assembly to exclude the NPF from it.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces have been allocated over N1.248tn in the budget.
Out of the 18 military and defence organisations allocated the total sum, the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Navy will get the largest chunk of the record military budget, with N638.1bn, N174.4bn and N158.7bn, respectively.
However, the IGP told the lawmakers that the total minimum projection of the police for the 2023 budgetary year was N889.6bn, but was reduced by N92.8bn.
“This was, however, reviewed to N796.7bn under the envelope budgetary system by the Budget Office of the Federation,” he said.
Out of the reviewed amount of N796.7bn, N28bn is for capital expenditure, while N33.6bn is for overhead cost, with the balance of N735.1bn for personnel cost.
Baba said, “The overhead cost estimate as computed under the envelope budgetary system is grossly inadequate to meet the operational, logistics, and administrative requirements of the force in the year 2023.
“To appreciate this challenge, the Joint Committees on Police Affairs are to humbly note, for instance, that as at today, the force has a fleet of 13,935 vehicles and 1,520 motorcycles nationwide.
“The minimum cost implications for fuelling for the sustenance of minimal patrol operations per year of these patrol assets is N34,099,946,150.00.
“Similarly, the monthly minimum maintenance cost for the operations of the fleet of operational vehicles and motorcycles of the force is computed at N8,258,580,000.
“Going by the above computation, the entire sum of N33,653,116,116.00 that is being projected for all subheads in the overhead cost for police formations and the 36 state commands and the FCT in the 2023 budget is not even enough to provide minimal fuelling and maintenance cost for police operational vehicles/motorcycles for seven months.
“This is not to mention other critical subheads such as local travels and transport allowances, international and local training costs, maintenance of buildings (offices and barracks), aircraft, marine boats, feeding of detainees nationwide as well as provision of uniform and accoutrement, which the same subhead is projected to cover.”
