The Addis Ababa City Administration has budgeted 140,000 birr (2,600 U.S. dollars) each for purchase of mobile phones for Mayor Adanech Abiebie and Speaker of Council of the city, Buzena Alkadir, the Addis Ababa based privately owned radio station Ethio FM 107.8 reported on Monday.
EthioFM 107.8 reported the Ethiopian capital’s administration has budgeted 120,000 birr (2,231 U.S. dollars) each for the purchase of mobile phones for Deputy Mayor, Jantrar Abay, officials sworn in the capacity of deputy mayor and for deputy city council speaker, Fayza Mohammed.
EthioFM 107.8 further reported mobile phone purchase budget has been set aside for lower city administration officials too.
Accordingly, 50,000 birr (930 U.S. dollars) has been set aside each for the administrators of the city’s 11 districts, 40,000 birr (744 U.S. dollars) has been set aside each for district level administrators and 30,000 birr (558 U.S. dollars) has been set aside each for lower district level officials.
The EthioFM 107.8 report attached document evidences alongside the report.
The extravagant spending habit of Ethiopian government officials comes despite tens of millions of Ethiopians in need of urgent humanitarian aid because of drought conditions and conflict.
Meanwhile, city dwellers including Addis Ababa are reporting fast rising level of hunger and economic deprivation as basic food items have become unaffordable for the vast majority.
