The Bayelsa State Government plans to spend N720 million on torchlights and walkie-talkie purchases for the Bayelsa Community Safety Corps and the State’s House of Assembly. Independent pricing showed the devices cost less than N100 million.
This is contained in the state’s 2024 budget FIJ saw on BudgIT, a website that analyses the budgets of state governments and the Federal Government.
FIJ saw that these purchases were stated in two line items.
The first line item had “purchase of 50 torchlight, 100 walking talking”(sic) as its project title, “Bayelsa State Community Safety Corps” as its description and an allocation of N700 million.
FIJ also saw that the same line item had an allocation of N850,000,000 in the approved 2023 budget, and N722,805,700 was spent in the state’s budget performance from January to September 2023.
The second line item also had “purchase of 50 torchlight, 100 walking talking”(sic) as its project title, State House of Assembly as its description and an allocation of N20 million in the approved 2024 budget. The same amount was allocated in the state’s 2023 budget for the same purpose.
N400 MILLION MORE THAN THE STATE’S HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENT LOAN BOARD ALLOCATION
FIJ has found that these allocations are higher than the allocation for the state’s higher education student loan board, which was pegged at 235,968,775 in the state’s 2024 budget.
The Bayelsa State Higher Education Loan Board (BYSHELB) was designed to provide loans for indigent students of Bayelsa origin studying in tertiary institutions and assist in the payments of their tuition fees.
In recent times, the tuition fees of universities across the country have been skyrocketing and many students have been severely affected by this. Experts also worry that these plummeting costs would lead to an increase in the number of university dropouts across the country.
An analysis by FIJ has also revealed that the state can spend less on torchlights and walkie-talkies than was allocated in the state’s budget.
FIJ saw on Jumia, an e-commerce website, that the prices of walkie-talkies ranged between N13,900 and N35,500.