By Michael Eboh

THE Federal Government has concluded plans to spend N32.195 billion on salaries, wages and allowances for staff of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, in the 2018 fiscal year.

budget

According to the 2018 budget proposal presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly, the DPR received a total allocation of N34.873 billion, with N32.195 billion earmarked for personnel cost, while N1.331 billion was budgeted for capital expenditure.

Breakdown of the allocation to the DPR showed that salaries and wages would gulp N12.23 billion; allowances would cost the Federal Government N18.43 billion; while N1.529 billion was budgeted for social contribution.

The amount budgeted for staff of the DPR is more than four times higher than the N7.375 billion earmarked for staff of the Federal Ministry of Finance; 1.86 times higher than the amount budgeted for staff of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing — three ministries merged into one.

Again, the amount budgeted for DPR staff was 3.09 times higher than the amount earmarked to be paid to staff of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; more than two times higher than the amount budgeted for staff of the Ministry of Environment; slightly higher than the N29.754 billion allocated to Ministry of Science and Technology’s staff and slightly lower than the N38.81 billion budgeted for staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, comprising five parastatals and 109 foreign missions.

Apart from personnel cost, the DPR also budgeted N89.79 million to fuel its vehicles, while N92.25 million was earmarked to be spent on fuelling its generators.

In the aspect of its capital allocation, the DPR budgeted N37 million for technical and information and communication technology, ICT,  support services for the Nigerian gas transportation network code; and is also proposing to spend N8.6 million for the establishment of petroleum quality control laboratory at its Calabar field office.

The DPR is also proposing to spend N89.9 million for the acquisition of analytical equipment for its Calabar field office laboratory; N161.92 million for the complete renovation of its head office in Victoria Island; while its proposed procurement of a web based integrated data management system (Petroleum Resources Intelligent System (PRIS) for access of reliable industry data and robust analytics to stakeholders is scheduled to gulp N159 million.

The DPR is also planning to spend N874.6 million for the upgrade of its Real-time National Production Monitoring System (R-NPMS) for 26 crude oil terminals locations.

In general, the Federal Government allocated N74.09 billion for all the parastatals in the petroleum industry, including the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

In the breakdown of the allocation, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, received the highest allocation of N34.87 billion, with N33.54 billion and N1.33 billion earmarked for recurrent and capital expenditure respectively.

Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, followed with a proposed spending of N14.5 billion, with N13.15 billion allocated for recurrent expenditure and N1.36 billion for capital expenditure.

The Federal Government is also proposing to allocate N9.16 billion to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, with N7.82 billion to be spent on recurrent expenditure, while capital allocation would gulp N1.34 billion.

The Federal Government also budgeted N7.37 billion for the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority, NNRA, while the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board received an allocation of N4.75 billion.