Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has addressed the controversy surrounding the budgeted amount for two Toyota Hilux vehicles.
Otti said that his administration actually budgeted 150
million naira for two Toyota Hilux vehicles. He added that the 1.5 billion
naira initially stated in an earlier report was an error from software.
Governor Otti said this on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Ezeukwu road
market in Aba, while responding to a question by a journalist, concerning the
media reports that Abia State Government had voted N1.5 billion to purchase two
units of Hilux vehicles in its 2024 budget.
Otti, who was at Ezeukwu Market to sympathise with some
traders, who lost their goods in a fire incident that occurred in the market on
Monday night, February 5, attributed the controversial figure to a software
glitch generated by the Excel package used in preparing the budget document,
but said the error has been corrected to intended 150 million naira.
Otti said: “When I saw that report, I knew something was
wrong. I knew it could either be the units or the price. So, I called the
Commissioner for Budget and Planning and asked him to check it out and call me
back. He did and reported that it was neither the units nor the price that was
wrong but the Excel. If you use Excel and the formula is not very right on a
particular line, you’re bound to have a problem like that.
“It’s a mistake that has been corrected,” Governor Otti
clarified. The governor said as soon as the news of the bloated figure got to
him, he immediately had to cross-check the budget numbers on his hand-held
device and found that the N1.5 billion was not translated to the total budget
figure and he was reassured.
“But suffice it to say that anything that comes from
government must be correct. It is an error, and it has been corrected.
“I must thank the people who pointed out the error. It means
that people are vigilant; people are checking and I encourage people to check
and hold government to account.
“I believe that our people should remain awake and be
vigilant and hold governments to account because the governments are
governments of the people, for the people and by the people and that is the
definition of democracy.
“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. The overall
numbers are correct and the figure of N1.5 billion was actually N150 million;
two units of Hilux vans at N75 million each will give you N150 million, that’s
the correct number.”
