The ministries of Information and Interior are to spend N303m on image laundering abroad and typewriters in 2014.
The sum is part of the details of the 2014 budget proposals submitted to the National Assembly by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The Information ministry will spend N300m on external publicity/media insertions in foreign print and electronic media in selected cities.
According the budget, the money will also be spent on engagement with foreign news agencies, and production of specialised publicity materials for foreign audience.
The details also showed that the Interior ministry would spend N3m on the purchase of typewriters during the year.
Another curious aspect of the ministry’s budget is its plan to spend N3m on Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It also intends to spend N3m on the refurbishment and upgrade of its intercom extension and N5m on letter bomb detectors.
The budget’s details also indicate that the development of social media platforms and networking with other platforms will cost the Information ministry N50m in 2014.
The production of calendars and dairies by the ministry will gulp N201, 347,699 the same year.
Nationwide media tour of Federal Government projects and hosting of town hall meetings by the Minister of Information is billed to cost N241m.
The Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, had towards the end of 2012 initiated the Good Governance Tour which has so far taken selected media professionals, public servants and civil society groups to four out of the six geopolitical zones in the country.
The tour ran into controversy when Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, and Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, distanced themselves from it.
Oshiomhole, in particular, contended that he did not need the team to validate that he was working for the people of Edo State.
It was not certain as of press time if the nationwide media tour mentioned in the budget is another initiative of the ministry or a continuation of the Good Governance Tour.
Another N130m will be spent on ministerial platforms and press briefings on national events while the development of a National Policy on Information and the hosting of the National Council on Information are to gulp N30m.
For the production of various publications on government policies and programmes, the ministry plans to spend N65m in 2014 .Public enlightenment and mobilisation on Vision 2020 in collaboration with Ministries, Departments and Agencies and external bodies on the transformation agenda of the government will gulp another N55m.
The ministry plans to spend N80m on human capital development, N10m on the promotion of Made-in-Nigeria products and N35m on ‘capacity building for budget monitoring of projects and financial monitoring in line with transformation agenda’.
Other major expenditures of the ministry include N25m for the production of jingles on progress made on the transformation agenda, N51m for the purchase of digital machines, and N30m on public enlightenment and national security campaigns awareness.
Various sums of money will also be spent by the ministry on the development of web portals and construction of Local Area Networks.
Curiously, the sum of N214, 242,040 is contained in the budget for the rehabilitation of police stations and barracks by the Nigeria Immigration Service.
Source: Punch
