The
House of Representatives is to receive the highest allocation in
National Assembly's N115 billion budget for 2016, details of the
proposal exclusively obtained ahead of an official release.
The House of Representatives is to receive the highest allocation
in National Assembly’s N115 billion budget for 2016, details of the
proposal exclusively obtained by Premium Times ahead of an official
release.
The public release of specific allocations to the various arms of the assembly will be the first time in five years.
Despite public criticisms against the assembly’s huge budget,
details seen by this newspaper show the N115 billion aggregate may be
retained after all.
In the budget President Muhammadu Buhari presented to the joint
sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives December 22, the sum
of N115 billion was allocated to the National Assembly without breaking
down the details of the allocations to its arms.
The bulk allocation to the National Assembly began in 2011. Since
then the legislature has resisted demands for a breakdown of allocations
to its arms and has rebuffed calls for transparency in its annual
spending.
Since taking office in 2015, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki,
who is the chairman of the National Assembly, repeatedly assured that
henceforth the details of its budget would be made known to Nigerians as
part of the efforts to ensure transparency in its operations.
The draft budgetary allocations to the National Assembly shows that
out of the N115 billion allocated to the legislature, N105.4 billion
has been set aside as recurrent expenditure while N9.6 billion is for
capital projects.
The draft breakdown, expected to be adopted by the Senate and House
of Representatives at their plenary sessions Thursday barring any last
minute change of mind, also shows that the 360-member House of
Representatives will get N47.2 billion.
Of that figure, proposed recurrent expenditure is N44. 6 billion
while the capital expenditure is N2.7 billion. The personnel cost for
the lower chamber is N4.9 billion while the overhead cost is N39.6
billion.
The proposed allocation to the Senate is N30. 2 billion. The
breakdown shows that the upper house would spend N3.3 billion on capital
projects and N26.97 billion on recurrent. Its personnel cost is
N1,856,510,517 and overhead cost is N25,111,332,147.
The Public Accounts Committee of the Senate was allocated N115,008,000 while its House counterpart got N138,009,000.
The management arm has a total allocation of N11,625,392,906 with
N10,048,616,823 as recurrent expenditure and N1,576,776,083 as capital
votes. Its personnel cost is N6,372,434,997 and overhead cost
N3,676,181,826.
The sum of N9458,800,803 was allocated for General Services. When
broken down, the recurrent profile is N,669,079,143 while the capital
expenditure profile stands at N789,721,660.
Other arms of the federal legislature that received allocations are
National Assembly Service Commission and the National Assembly
Legislative Institute.
The NASC got N1,971,833,327 with N1,858,033,532 as recurrent
expenditure and N113,799,795 for capital projects. Its personnel cost is
N810,084,566 while the overhead is N1,047,950,966.
On its part, the NALI secured a total of N4,208,813,051 with
N3,844,990,172 as capital and N363,822,879 as recurrent. A further
breakdown shows that its personnel cost is 363,522,879 while overhead is
N3,019,355,811.
A total of N9,668,983,512 has been set aside for the legislative
aides of the lawmakers while the Service Order Vote is N374,405,631.
Past Assurances
The expected release of the detailed budgetary allocations to the
various arms of the National Assembly will be the first since 2011.
Until that year, allocations to the arms had been detailed in the budget presented by the past presidents to the legislature.
The budgets prepared by the Goodluck Jonathan administration for
the National Assembly between 2011 and 2015 did not provide specifics.
Similarly, the then Senate President, David Mark, and Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, never bothered to disclose
the details of the budgetary allocations to the National Assembly,
which came to N715 billion.
The sum of N150 billion each was allocated to the legislature in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 while it got N115 billion in 2015.
The secrecy with which the National Assembly engaged in financial
transactions attracted public outcry with many demanding that such
transactions should be made open.
In January, a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, in a letter he
addressed to Mr. Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Yakubu Dogara, said the practice in the National Assembly “detracts
from “distinguishness” and “honourability” because it is shrouded in
opaqueness and absolute lack of transparency and could not be regarded
as normal, good and decent practice in a democracy that is supposed to
be exemplary.”
Since he assumed office last year, Mr. Saraki had repeatedly
assured that the financial transactions of the National Assembly would
be open.
In an interview with a team of editors of the London based
magazine- the Economist last Sunday, the senate president said the
budget breakdown of the lawmakers would be published this week.
He said the decision to publish the details of the budget was in
line with the anti-corruption stance of the 8th National Assembly,
adding that the legislature would not cover any form of corruption.
“For the first time we promised Nigerians that the Senate will
disclose its budget breakdown, the committee will make its report
available by next week. We are resolved to break the tradition of one
line item,” he said.
Mr. Saraki said that the Senate would partner with President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the success of the anti-corruption war.
He had made similar promises in the past. In his inauguration
speech on June 9, 2015, the senate president told Nigerians that the era
of impunity and arrogance in the country was gone.
He said there would be “a change from impunity and elite arrogance
to a life of accountability and respect for every citizen, regardless of
tribe, gender, religion and political persuasion. We must justify the
privilege of representation conferred in us by the people.”
“As the President of the 8th Senate and chairman of the National
Assembly, I shall be guided by the enormity of the responsibilities that
this moment imposes on all of us,” he stressed.
In another media interview, Mr. Saraki, He said, “By the time we
come in to the 2016 budget at the end of the year, it will be even
clearer because people just see one item line.
“But that is not going to happen now, you will see what goes to the
Senate, what goes to the House of Reps, you are going to see what goes
to management, what goes to Legislative Institute, we are going to make
all these open and clear. That is part of the openness we promised.”
Again, while receiving the leadership of the All Progressive
Congress Youth Forum in his office as part of the celebration of this
year’s International Youth Day in August, Mr. Saraki said the Senate had
nothing to hide.
He said, “I want to assure you, despite all what you read in the
papers, be rest assured that we are here for serious business. We are
all committed to make a difference and my doors are open.
“Very soon, from what I am being told from the Senate Committee on
Rules and Business, we are trying to move fast about the e-parliament so
that everybody here can know what we are doing and they can also
contribute to some of the discussions.
“We want to make this place as open as possible. There is nothing
here we are hiding. What is our great motivation? Nigerians spoke at the
last elections and I don’t think they spoke for things to be the same
and we must not let it be the same. We must ensure that it is positively
different.”
