Nigeria Senator Saga
The National Assembly Service Commission
should be held responsible for the running cost of N13.5m paid to each
senator on a monthly basis, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and
Fiscal Commission has said.
In a statement by RMAFC spokesman, Mr.
Ibrahim Mohammed, the commission said on Wednesday that the approved
remuneration of a senator for a month was N1.06m, adding that anything
outside the payment was against the law.
Senator Shehu Sani, a senator
representing Kaduna Central constituency, had in a recent interview
confirmed the reports that each senator gets a jumbo pay of about N40m
per quarter.
Sani had explained that each senator receives N13.5m a month for running cost apart from salary and allowances.
According to him, although senators are not directed on how to spend the money, they are expected to “retire the payment.”
Washing its hands off from the jumbo
pay, RMAFC said only the National Assembly Service Commission should be
held responsible for the jumbo pay, adding that it had become imperative
for RMAFC to give a clarification because the subject had remained in
the public domain since Sani made the disclosure.
Mohammed said, “The law on salaries and
allowances of public office holders is very clear and as such it is only
the management of the National Assembly Service Commission that can
explain the N13.5m running cost allegedly being enjoyed by each senator.
“A closer look at the monthly
entitlement of senators reveals that each senator collects salary and
allowances in the sum of N1,063,860:00 consisting of the following:
basic, N168,866:70; motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance allowance,
N126,650:00; personal assistant N42,216:66; domestic staff, 126,650:00;
entertainment, N50,660:00; utilities, N50,660:00;
newspapers/periodicals, N25, 330:00; wardrobe-N42,216,66:00; house
maintenance, N8,443.33:00; and constituency, N422,166:66.
“It is instructive to note that some
allowances are regular while others are non-regular. Regular allowances
are paid regularly with basic salary while non-regular allowances are
paid as and when due. Furniture allowance (N6,079,200:00) and
severance gratuity (N6,079,200:00), for instance, are paid once in every
tenure while motor vehicle loan (N8,105,600:00) is optional which the
beneficiary has to offset before leaving office.
“The payment of running cost is not part of RMAFC’s mandate. Therefore, only the NASS can explain it.
“Thus, the RMAFC also wishes to use this
opportunity to state that any other payments enjoyed by any political
or public office holders outside those provided in the Remuneration Act
of 2008 is not known to the commission and the Chief Accounting Officer
of the agencies concerned should explain it.
“To avoid misinformation and
misrepresentation of facts capable of misleading citizens and members of
the international community, the commission considers it most
appropriate and necessary to request Nigerians and any other interested
party to avail themselves of the opportunity to access the actual
details of the present Remuneration package for Political, Public and
Judicial Office holders in Nigeria published on its website:
www.rmafc.gov.ng.”
Mohammed added that auditing did not fall within the purview of the commission.
Sagay, others slam N’Assembly
In his response, the Chairman of the
Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay
(SAN), said it was the sole prerogative of the RMAFC to fix allowances
of public officials, including lawmakers.
He said the blame for the jumbo pay
should be put on the National Assembly and not the National Assembly
Service Commission since the National Assembly leadership controlled the
commission.
Sagay said, “I agree with what the RMAFC
has said because anything beyond what the commission approves is
illegal. The National Assembly has been voting money for lawmakers
outside what is permitted. Lawmakers’ allowances ought to be regulated
by the RMAFC and so anything they get outside this is illegal.
“But I don’t understand why the blame
should put on the National Assembly Service Commission. Who is directing
the other? Isn’t the National Assembly Commission under the control of
the National Assembly? Aren’t the Senate President, the Speaker and the
Clark the bosses of the commission?
“There is no doubt in my mind that the
whole thing is being orchestrated by the legislators. They are just
money-mongers who believe that it is their duty to milk the country. So,
somebody may be technically responsible but in reality, the National
Assembly leadership are the ones that should be held responsible for the
allowances.”
Also, a former Managing Director of
Unity Bank Plc, Mr. Rislanudeen Mohammed, said there was no
justification for the N13.5m running cost.
Mohammed who is also the Managing
Director, Safmur Investment Limited, called on the Revenue Mobilisation
Allocation and Fiscal Commission to review the payment in the light of
current economic realities.
He said there iwa the need for the
lawmakers to make their budget more transparent, adding that since the
budget of the National Assembly was shrouded in secrecy, it was prone to
abuse.
He said, “It is up to the RMAFC to
establish whether the referred allowance paid is in itself legal or not
or it is rather shrouded in the secret way the National Assembly budget
is approved and implemented as one line item.”
Senators must refund illegal allowances – CACOL, CDHR
Two civil society organisations, the
Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership and the Committee for the
Defence of Human Rights, have said the members of the Senate must be
compelled to refund the excesses on their allowances, going by the
revelation made by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal
Commission.
The CACOL Director, Debo Adeniran, said
that after the refund of the “illegal earnings, the legislators must be
prosecuted for such unconstitutional allocations from the government
treasury.”
Adeniran said, “We have said that
members of the Senate are complicit in the criminal conspiracy to
allocate jumbo salaries to themselves. This is illegal and all of them
have committed criminal offences for which they should be rounded up and
prosecuted. Any public servant earning more than what RMAFC stipulates
is committing a crime.
“What should follow now is that the
executive should mobilise the anti-graft agencies to ensure that all
these excess allocations must be paid back by the members of the
Senate.”
Also, the CDHR President, Malachy
Ugwummadu, said, “It is a classic case of misappropriation of public
funds. The constitution is clear about the agency of government that
fixes the remuneration of all public office holders, not just the
Senate.
“It is one area that there is total
breach. Any amount different from what RMAFC fixes is not just an
illegality, but the senators should be compelled to return it.”
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