PAUL UTEBOR
A provision of ₦800 million for external legal consultancy has been discovered in the Delta State Ministry of Justice’s 2026 budget proposal, a move that would see huge amount of money given towards outsourced legal services despite the department having fully paid lawyers.
The amount under the Ministry’s overhead expenditure for the year 2026, providing funding for “Consultancy/Legal Services,” represents an increase of ₦300,000,000 in spending on external support compared with previous years and stands as one of the largest single overhead items in the Ministry’s current budget.
Reviewing of the budget document reveals no detailed breakdown regarding the specific nature of the consultancy work, the selection process for the firms involved, or the identity of the beneficiaries.
While it is normal for government bodies to occasionally use external counsel for highly specialised litigation or international arbitration, the 2026 proposal does not specify if the funds are reserved for such extraordinary cases.
Recall that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori on Tuesday, 16 December 2025, signed the 2026 Delta State Appropriation Bill into law, a day after it was passed by the State House of Assembly. The budget, tagged the “Budget of Accelerating the MORE Agenda,” stands at ₦1.729 trillion, representing an increase of about ₦65.6 billion from the ₦1.664 trillion initially presented to lawmakers on 26 November 2025.
The 2026 budget places strong emphasis on infrastructure development, with 70 per cent (₦1.229 trillion) earmarked for capital projects and 30 per cent (₦500 billion) set aside for recurrent expenditure. The size of the budget represents a significant increase of more than 70 per cent over the 2025 fiscal plan.
