Wike’s government is a scam, Rivers budget akin to the mysterious Bermuda Triangle -Wechie

The Executive Director of the Integrity group, Livingstone Wechie , has accused the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike,  of allegedly enforcing his personal desires on the citizens of the state.

At a press briefing in Port Harcourt, he challenged Wike to name an institution, Ministries or individual who can produce a copy of the state’s budget

He alleged that the Wike led government is running an administration that has made it almost impossible for organizations and individuals to evaluate its performance, reiterating that Rivers State is the only state in the Niger delta region that has a secret budget.

 

He stated that budgets for other states were public documents, While Rivers State budget has remained a secret budget since the inception of the Wike led government .

Excerpts of the press briefing

 

 

WIKE’S 2018 BUDGET PROPOSAL: A DOUBLE BUDGETTING AKIN TO THE MYSTERIOUS BERMUDA TRIANGLE

The budget speech presented by Governor Nyesom Wike on the floor of the Rivers state House of Assembly is a repeat broadcast and budget speech repetition as contained in his 2017 budget speech amongst other budget speeches capturing  same projects. Thus all Budgets under the Wike government is akin to the mysterious  Bermuda Triangle also known as the Devil’s Triangle, since the “Appropriation Law” which is the budget documents proper have remained a top secret and inaccessible to the general public including members of his administration.

The budget speech which is a summary of the mysterious budget lacks in needs assessment of the Rivers constituents.  Virtually all projects captured in the Governor Wike 2018 budget speech are same as his previous budget speeches which is a dangerous trend of double BUDGETTING.  Some of the socalled ongoing projects are projects that can be completed easily within a budgetary year but have been rebudgetted for without any explanation. An example is the Amadi-Ama internal roads among several others.

Therefore It is no longer in doubt that the entire budget proposals of Governor Wike is his personal opinion. This is because he has shut out the people of the state through lack of Consultatiion and participation killing the Scale of preference model with a mischievous projects distribution approach as there can be no better way to describe lack of accountability in governance outside mischief as he continues to show ulterior motives in this order.

Unfortunately it is surprising the conspiracy between Governor Wike and members of the State House of Assembly who rated him  seventy four (74%) in implementation of 2017 budget. And the question is how did they arrive at this rating without any accessible budget when the people of Rivers state and the general public was completely shut out.

It is because of the lack of consultation that Governor Nyesom Wike is always in the habit of impulse and on the spot contract and award of projects upon visits without due process of the law which is quick means under the Wike administration to consistently misappropriate public funds under the guise of “Mr Projects” in virtually all his so-called projects.

From Wike’s budgets speech, monies running into hundreds of billions of Naira have been curiously allocated for various purposes even though it is traditional in his administration not to give technical details on appropriation in line with the budget proper and the state Procurement Law.  This is because 2018 budget again will be a huge secret and the Governor is likely to hide it again being a propaganda Budget that nobody except  governor Nyesom Wike will have access to for his best known questionable intent.

Regrettably, the 2018 budget under Governor Wike if any is his last chance under the current dispensation for a full budgetary year implementation yet Rivers people will not be involved or consulted and this is a grave betrayal of trust.

Thus, Governor Nyesom Wike’s 2018 Budget from his budget speech is a clear act of double BUDGETTING akin to the mysterious Bermuda Triangle also known as the Devils Triangle which nobody shall have access to except Governor Wike himself and  we will not rest until Justice is served.

Signed:

Livingstone Wechie

Executive Director

The Integrity Group