Gov’t Spent 37% of Millions Spent on Fuel & Lubricants on Youth & Sports from 2020 to 2023

Digitised by Yusef Taylor for Askanwi Media

By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT

In the past, I would focus on the government’s approved expenditure and report mostly on that. However, as time passed by, I began to realize that it’s one thing to approve an expenditure and another thing to actually keep to that allocation.

I have come to realize that it’s more important to report on how much government has actually spent in comparison to what it has allocated. In our latest publication, we highlight that the government has spent significantly more on fuel and lubricants than on the Ministry of Youth and Sports from 2020 to 2023.

Our compilation shown below includes actual expenditure for all funds, which includes loans, grants, and GLF. All data compiled shown are from the approved 2021–2024 budget and the latest 2025 draft budget.

Compiled by Yusef Taylor for Askanwi Media

After compiling the data from the budget from 2020 to 2025, it can be seen that the government spent over D2.1 billion on vehicles, maintenance, fuel, and lubricants from 2020 to 2023. Every single one of those years, the government overspent by up to 182% in 2021, the lowest being 104% in 2020.

What’s most interesting is that the government actually spent more on fuel and lubricants (D973 million) in those three years from 2020 to 2023 than it did on vehicles (D904 million).

Maintenance of vehicles accounts for a total spend of D265 million, and in those three years the government actually underspent on maintenance of vehicles, spending 93% of the D285 million allocated from 2020 to 2023.

However, when we look at firefighting, ambulances, and rescue vehicles, the story is the complete opposite. According to the approved 2021-2024 budgets, the government did not spend one dalasis on this budget item for 2023 and 2022. In fact, only D3.7 million has been spent from 2020 to 2023, when D27.4 million was allocated to be spent on this budget item.

In comparison to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the government spent a total of D361 million from 2020 to 2023, which translates to 69% of the allocated D520 million the government planned to spend in this same period.

If the government is spending more on fuel and lubricants than it is spending on the Ministry of Youth and Sports, then how can the “Youths be Happy”?

What does it tell us when the government’s expenditure on the Ministry of Youth and Sports equates to 37% of the amount it spends on fuel and lubricants?

But come 2026, many youths will still be running behind the same chauffered-driven luxury vehicles, shuttling politicians canvassing for votes. Meanwhile, the same politicians are busy plundering our resources without any regard and still desperately seeking another term to continue this plunder unabated.

I hope that the youths will remember that the government is spending less than 40% of the amount it spends on fuel and lubricants on the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

This is why I say the budget is a scam.

Millions spent on OIC Luxury vehicles, with more to be spent in 2025 and beyond © Askanwi