Shock as FG budgets N14 billion for computers, stationery

Nigerians are still reeling in shock as Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government will spend a whopping N14.07bn on the acquisition and maintenance of Information Technology equipment like computers as well as stationery this year.

This is N1.69bn or 13.65 per cent higher than the N12.38bn, which the MDAs earmarked to spend on the same items in 2013.

Prominent among the MDAs is the Ministry of Transport, which earmarked N1.55bn for the purchase of computers in 2013 and N2.1bn for the same purpose this year. This means that in the two-year period, the ministry set aside N3.65bn for the acquisition of computers alone.

According to the 2014 budget proposals currently before the National Assembly, the expenditure of the MDAs is in five sub-heads: acquisition of computers, maintenance of office and IT equipment, acquisition of software, acquisition of office stationery/computer consumables as well as IT consulting.

The budget proposals, however, do not include expenses on networking, Internet access, satellite broadcast and telephone charges.

They do not also include the expenses of some agencies and institutions that have separate funding systems. Such institutions include the National Assembly, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Independent National Electoral Commission, Raw Materials Research and Development Council of Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Analyses of the IT budget by our correspondents showed that 25 per cent or N3.52bn of the sum would go into the purchase of computers; maintenance of computers and office equipment will gulp N2.43bn or 17.3 per cent of the total expenses; while the acquisition of software will consume N4.22bn or 30.02 per cent.

Stationery and computer consumables will gulp N3.22bn or 22.89 per cent of the total figure, while IT consulting services will take N673.24m or 4.79 per cent.

The total expenditure is driven by agencies and ministries that have some seemingly high expenses for components of the IT purchases.

The Ministry of Transport, for instance, proposed to spend N2.1bn on the purchase of computers, while the National Intelligence Agency hopes to spend N1.56bn on Microsoft application licences.

The Ministry of Defence proposed N405.96m for the maintenance of office and IT equipment, while the Nigerian Air Force proposed N193.99m for the maintenance of its own IT equipment.

The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development proposed N255m for the acquisition of software, while the National Population Commission plans to spend N223.58m on the acquisition of computer software and N63.75m on stationery and computer consumables.

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission also hopes to get N115m to be spent on software acquisition and another N35m on computers.

If approved by the National Assembly, the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation will spend N141.39m on the purchase of computers, while the Ministry of Finance will expend N97.35m on stationery and computer consumables.

 The Ministry of Communications Technology proposed N250.29m for the acquisition of software, N150m for the deployment of tools for the ICT professional cadre and N23.02m for the computerisation of its accounting department.

The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development hopes to spend N255m on the acquisition of software; the National Broadcasting Commission, N119.8m on the purchase of computers; and the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, N141.39m on computer acquisition.

On sector aggregate basis, the Ministry of Information and its agencies proposed N234.8m for the purchase of computers, N35.79m for maintenance of IT equipment, N291.73m for the acquisition of software, N80.5m for consumables and N221.19m for IT consulting.

The Ministry of Science and Technology and its agencies proposed to spend N236.95m on computer consumables; N81.9m on the acquisition of computers, N64.6m on the maintenance of office and IT equipment; N37.84m on IT consulting; and N15.7m on the purchase of software.

The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and its agencies will spend N337.94m on software acquisition; N92.67m on computer consumables; N29.5m on maintenance and N6.5m on the purchase of computers.

Similarly, the Ministry of Communications Technology and its agencies plan to spend N261.31m on the acquisition of software; N173.02m on computers; N20.24m on computer consumables; N8.68m on maintenance and N8.17m on IT consulting.

The Ministry of Finance and its agencies proposed N328.38m for computers; the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and its agencies, N106.16m for the same purpose; and the National Planning Commission, N61.34m.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its agencies will spend N627.99m on computers. This, however, excludes what the over 100 embassies abroad will spend.

The Ministry of Education and its agencies will spend N506.76m, excluding what the universities under it will spend on the subject.

The Ministry of Youth Development and its agencies will spend an aggregate of N344.35m on computers; Ministry of Defence and its agencies, N1.3bn; Ministry of Niger Delta, N170.47m; Ministry of Labour and its agencies, N75.23m; and the Ministry of Health and its agencies, N431.75m.

The Presidency will spend N546m on computers. Details of the proposals showed that N188.4m will go to office stationery/computer consumables; N42m for maintenance of office/IT equipment; and N186.1m for the purchase of computers and accessories; while computer software acquisition will gulp N105.6m.

In the office of the Vice-President, N80.8m will be spent on stationery/computer consumables, while N13.8m will go to IT consulting.

On aggregate, the Presidency and the agencies under it will spend   N925.53m on computers and related expenses. The purchase of computers will take N165.6m; computer consumables, N436.5m; maintenance, N98.7m; software, N196.4m; and IT consulting, N28.33m.

An analysis of the 2013 budgetary provision for IT showed that N3.73bn or 30.09 per cent will go into consumables; N2.26bn or 18.28 per cent for maintenance; N478.72m or 3.87 per cent for IT consulting; N2.76bn or 22.29 per cent for software; while N3.15bn or 25.47 per cent will be for the purchase of physical computers.

Bureaucracy watchers are worried that the regular expenses on computers do not translate into efficiency in the MDAs. Some argue that a higher percentage of the money ends up in foreign lands to acquire foreign technologies, while part of the remaining is misappropriated.

However, the Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, Dr. Umar Bindr, justified the huge expenditure on computers on the grounds that the Federal Government’s bureaucracy was large.

Bindr argued that the present administration was serious about e-government, adding that there was no way this could take shape without huge expenses on computers and related activities.

“We cannot say that the technologies are completely imported or unreasonable. However, while we are importing these technologies, it is important that we empower research agencies and institutions like the National Information Technology Development Agency so that we can domesticate these capacities and equip our youths to make money,” he said.

The President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, Mr. Chris Uwaje, said the proposed expenses were not enough to galvanise the software industry in the country.

He said, “Simply evaluated, it shows that our national IT vision is still matchbox in its thinking.

-The Punch