Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has sparked controversy after spending a fresh N6 billion on renovating the Government House in 2024.
This comes despite the state government already spending N16 billion on the same renovation project in 2023.
According to the 2024 state budget performance report, the Governor Mohammed-led government spent a total of N6,042,188,850.35 on “renovation, expansion and furnishing of Government House Bauchi”.
This new expenditure has raised eyebrows, given the significant amount already spent on the project in the previous year.
The 2023 audited report revealed that the state government awarded the contract for upgrading the government house to M/S Architectronix limited at a cost of N6.6 billion. However, a contract variation of N9.5 billion brought the total contract sum to N16.1 billion.
The state’s internally generated revenue for 2023 stood at N34.2 billion, meaning that the N16 billion spent on the government house renovation accounted for approximately 50% of the state’s internally generated revenue for that year.
The fresh expenditure on the government house renovation has raised questions about the state government’s priorities and the value for money in the project.
