The expenditure cover items such as refreshments, sitting allowances, travelling, utilities, among others.
Areport from the analysis of Open Nigeria States, a website supported by BudgIT has shown that no fewer than 30 state governments of the federation spent N986.64billion on recurrent expenditures in the first three months of 2024.
The expenditure cover items such as refreshments, sitting allowances, travelling, utilities, among others.
The report noted 30 states were examined for the first three months of the year, while six states could not be accessed due to unavailability of data, PUNCH reports.
Benue, Imo, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto and Yobe States were the ones without Q 1, 2024 data.
It was noted that in the first three months of 2024, 30-state governments spent N5.1bn on refreshments for guests, N4.67bn on sitting allowances to government officials, N34.63bn on local and foreign travel expenses, and N5.64bn on utility bills, amounting to N50.02bn.
The general utilities include electricity, internet, telephone charges, water rates, and sewerage charges, among others.
The sub-nationals also paid N405.77bn as salaries to their workers. Recurrent spending items covered in the report included the amount spent on foreign and domestic travel, Internet access fees, entertainment, foodstuff, honorarium/sitting allowance, wardrobe allowances, telephone bills, electricity charges, stationery, anniversaries/special days, welfare, aircraft maintenance, and more.
In the first three months of 2024, Abia State spent N10.92bn on its recurrent expenditures, including N165.38m on refreshments and feeding, N39.26m on utilities, N214.57m on sitting allowances, N127.1m on local and foreign travels, among miscellaneous expenses.
During the period under review , Adamawa State recurrent expenditure gulped N23.7bn.
This is further broken into N287.61m spent on refreshments and feeding, N109.62m on utilities, N79.57m on sitting allowances, N768.77m on local and foreign travels.
For Akwa Ibom State, recurrent expenditure gulped N46.85bn, which included N4.46m on refreshments and feeding, N223.32m on utilities, N6m on sitting allowances, N214.61m on local and foreign travel.
Anambra State disbursed N9.91bn for recurring expenses with N78.18m on refreshments and feeding, N32.52m on utilities, N42.09m on sitting allowances, N188.39m on local and foreign travel.
Also, recurrent expenditures cost Bauchi State Government N35.75bn with N397.58m going to utilities, N50.8m on refreshments, N287.11m on allowances, and N413.56m on trips.
For Bayelsa State, the cost of recurrent expenditure stood at N35.1bn , comprising N28.4m on utilities, N156.14m on refreshments and N279.99m on trips.