31 December 2013, Abuja – The Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, will next year spend N6.3 billion to pay salaries and allowances of its about 249 workers.
This proposal is in the 2014 budget, presented to the National Assembly penultimate week.
The budget did not specify the number of workers at PPPRA, but the agency’s executive secretary Reginald Stanley had in November 2012 told a National Assembly committee that the agency had 249 staffers.
He was speaking at a hearing on the 2013 budget that provided N6.1 billion for salaries and allowances of the PPPRA workers.
Lawmakers were outraged at the time that only 249 workers would gulp up to N6.1 billion as personnel costs alone.
Yet, this year’s budget hiked the personell cost for the agency to N6.3 billion, even though there is no indication that the agency’s staff numbers have increased from last year.
Details of the 2014 budget proposal show that the PPPRA is to get a total allocation of N6.422 billion out of which N6.353 billion is for recurrent and N68.570 million for capital projects.
The agency is proposing N68.570 million for the purchase of office furniture and fittings, N10.608 million for travels and transport, N7.843 million for fuel and lubricants, N7.734 million for consulting and professional services, N3.548 million for security services, N6.253 million for training, N5.023 million for maintenance services and N4.019 million for utilities.
In addition, the PPPRA will spend N68.570 million on the ongoing partitioning and furnishing of its headquarters in Abuja.
*Isiaka Wakili, Daily Trust
