Details of a petition by a Senior Legislative Assistant against his boss, a serving senator, which has been before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since March 2015, provide an insight into how unnecessary the average N150 billion annual budget on the National Assembly since 2010 has been. With documentary evidence, the senator’s aide, a doctorate degree holder, enumerated how, in an attempt to retire the quarterly funds and other allowances he received from the National Assembly Commission, the senator forged documents and allocated spurious and laughable figures to expenditure never incurred.
The Senior Legislative Assistant claimed to have written the petition to the EFCC to compel the senator to pay him his entitlements for serving his boss for three years. In one of the retirement documents for the third quarter in 2012, for instance, the senator claimed to have spent N10 million on travels for 21 days. Those he claimed to have travelled with included his Senior Legislative Aide, a Legislative Aide, a Legislative Assistant, his Secretary, his driver and his police escort. Each of them, the senator claimed, had travelled with him for 21 days in that quarter. Also, the cost of maintaining three vehicles in one quarter was put at N1.5 million. It cost N788,500 to fuel the three vehicles in that quarter, and for contingencies, the senator claimed to have spent N6 million. The total sum for the subhead of this overhead allocation was put at N10 million.
As if he contradicted himself, within that same quarter, the Senator, in another retirement of a cash advance of N8 million, claimed to have travelled outside the country for 30 days. He claimed to have travelled with his Special Assistant and Personal Assistant who received $600 per day, $425 per day and $381 per day for 30 days respectively.
As if the above are not enough falsehood and forgery, the retirement of the N51 million paid to the senator in the third quarter of 2014 came with shocking claims. The senator claimed in the document that for three months, he spent N10 million on local travels and transportation. Within the same period, he claimed to have spent N8 million on foreign travels. Other items that would shock the reader include the sum of N1.8 million spent on newspapers and magazines; his vehicles maintained with the sum of N1.5 million and maintenance of office equipment with the sum of N1.8 million; while the maintenance of computer and IT cost another N1.7 million.  The senator’s retirement claims showed evidence of forgery that an amateur forensic expert would detect even in his sleep. The distinguished supported the retirement with over a hundred receipts, from restaurants, to hotels, to car service centres, etc, all bearing one handwriting, signed in the same way, addressed in the same way, and figures written in the same manner.
Even the constituency projects, which are supposed to be carried out on behalf of the senator by a government agency, were cornered by the senator, executed by a company he chose. The documents attached to the petition indicated that the projects may never have been carried out.
The above facts give a bite to the outcry in the country against the huge resources voted for the National Assembly in the annual budget. Data mined by our reporters indicated that from a budgetary allocation of about N19 billion in 2000, the National Assembly now budgets for itself and average of N150 billion annually, an increase of over 700 per cent. The official emoluments of senators sketched by the Revenue Mobilisation Commission are as follows: Basic annual salary of N2,026,400.00, duty tour allowance put at about N32,000, and an estacode of $600 per night. As for House of Representatives members, each of them is entitled to N1,985,212.50 annual basic salary, N21,000 duty tour allowance and $550 estacode per night. In addition to this, each senator is entitled to N51 million per quarter, while the House of Representatives members receive N36 million every quarter. From the quarterly allowance alone, each senator earns N546,000 per day, while the House of Representatives member earns N394,520 per day, though the lawmakers do not work every day of the year. In 2012, the United Kingdom-based The Economist claimed that, with the kind of funds available to the Nigerian lawmakers, they are the most paid in the world.
Also, considering the annual N150 billion budgetary allocation to the body since 2011 when the 7th Assembly was inaugurated, it becomes apparent that the body has received at least N600 billion, but has passed 106 bills since the Jonathan administration came to power in 2011. That means on the average, the lawmakers spent N5,660,377,358.00 to work on each bill to pass it into law. It is not clear in the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari will be able to cope with such huge budgets for the lawmakers, considering his anti-corruption stance and the dwindling revenue from crude oil, the country’s economic mainstay.


LAWMAKERS PRESSURIZE EXECUTIVE FOR FUNDS:
Mr Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani the Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), told Sunday Trust that corruption is one of the reasons why lawmakers cannot perform their functions dutifully. According to him, “When they go for oversight functions, some of them try to use their positions to get what is not supposed to be theirs. During the budget defence, some of them also are alleged to have been demanding for some money to pass a particular item in the budget.  Sometimes, in the case of some of the ministries, they ensure that there are some items in the budget of their ministries or parastatals that are not part of their original plan. But they put it in the budget. Later, they (lawmakers) will ask them to pull out that aspect for them. We also hear the allegation of some people who have gone to the National Assembly for confirmation as Ministers or for a particular position. You remember the case of Mallam Nasir El-Rufa’i in 2003, when he alleged that some legislators demanded money for his confirmation. You also heard the case of Honourable Herman Hembe against the former Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Arunma Oteh, over bribery allegation, which is in court. You also hear the case of Farouk Lawan, who is also in court on the bribe scandal over the oil subsidy issue. So, there are quite numbers of issues that are known to the public. There are other ones that are not known to the public.”     
Malam Rafsanjani added, however, that  “we believe and know that there are many legislators who are not engaged in these malpractices. But what happens over the years is that there is unnecessary solidarity by legislators. Once there is an established case of corruption conducted by one of their colleagues, with the exception of the Farouk Lawan scandal, I think in most of the cases, there were some attempts to either cover up or do solidarity on them. But the National Assembly needs to do something. In some instances, there were allegations of outright demand by legislators before they passed legislations. For example, we heard allegations that some powerful companies, like oil companies, coming to bribe members in order to take one action or the other.”

OBASANJO’S MONETISATION POLICY CAUSED BLOATED NASS BUDGET - NA’ABBA
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Umar Ghali Na’Abba, in an interview with Sunday Trust blamed the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which introduced monetisation policy for the hike in the earnings of lawmakers.
According to him, “Before 2005, that was not the situation. This started because of monetisation. In that year, Obasanjo, in his own wisdom, decided that everything about governance should be monetised. He directed that all houses belonging to the federal government be sold. So, they were sold. But you need these houses to shelter legislators and the civil servants. That is why the expenditure for the legislators and civil servants became over-bloated. Today, renting the kind of property that housed a minister will cost about N30 million because you have to furnish it and do many other things. I’m told that when a new minister is appointed, he is given about N100 million to get accommodation and furnish it. Then, he will be given money for vehicles. So, when you add up, it is a lot of money.”
The former Speaker argued further that “The legislature, by its nature, is a money guzzling institution. If, for example, there is a motion on flood in Kano and I move the motion for the government to do something about it and it is accepted, the House authorises that a particular committee should go to Kano and assess it. That will cost a lot of money. If you have five of such motions in a day, you sit for four days in a week and you have 20 motions like that, you have to spend almost N50 million, for example, in the least. This happens on weekly basis, which is just one aspect. You have committee staff, among which is the secretary, who is the counterpart of a permanent secretary in the ministries. You have to have other staff of the committee. So, all the committees have counterparts who supervise the directorate on behalf of the committees. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives will have such committees. People don’t know all of these things. Legislative work is not just sitting in plenary. Most of the works are done in offices. If you go to the US, for example, it is rare to see up to 50 members sitting at a time for a legislature that has over 400 members. They have CCTVs in their offices. From there, they watch what transpires on the floor of the House. Sometimes, you enter and see only the Speaker and one member talking and the person sitting on the Speaker’s chair may not be the Speaker.  The only time you see them cluster is when there will be a vote. But here, people want to see themselves on television.”
He added also that “Motions moved in the National Assembly are very expensive. And they are more or less advisory. The work of the legislator is not restricted to the chamber. There are lots of works. People have not been exposed to lots of the works the legislators do. That is why they are concerned about the budget of the National Assembly. But before I make a final comment, let me say that the people must be determined on what they want with their National Assembly. I don’t believe legislators should be in a situation where they are not being well taken care of. Reasonably, you must take care of your legislator because anybody who will make laws for you should not be allowed to be distracted by anything. A lot of times, noise is made that legislators are going about chasing contracts. This situation should not be allowed."

CALL FOR CUT IN EXPENDITURE ON LAWMAKERS:
Rafsanjani believes that the incoming administration should look into the huge expenditure on the legislature and do what is appropriate to reduce it. He told Sunday Trust that “It is important for the incoming administration to look into the fraudulent idea of public officers allocating resources to themselves, sometimes, bogus allowances. The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is supposed to be responsible for allocating wages to public officers. But what happens is that, with the autonomy from the National Assembly, for example, they now create many allowances for themselves. It is not sustainable. It is too much. It is too bogus. That is not done in the interest of the country. So, as a way forward, the National Assembly members and the executive members, who are political appointees, should reflect and ensure that they do not have allowances, salaries or wages that are outrageous. They can actually have reasonable amounts to enable them do their work effectively.”
Also, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Bello Ibrahim Jahun, told Sunday Trust in an interview at the weekend that the incoming lawmakers should face the business of making laws rather than looking for money.
According to him, “The agenda for the incoming National Assembly shall be lawmaking and lawmaking alone, although, there are certain auxiliary functions that they also ought to do along with the executive. For example, in the appointment of ministers they have to confirm that a particular person has made all the required qualifications before he becomes a minister. That process is not lawmaking but it is something that has to do with the sanity of the system and there are laid-down procedures and the National Assembly is empowered to make sure that under the principle of check and balance that the Executive has complied with the rules on the appointment of ministers.
There are other offices where the president cannot make appointments without the consent of the National Assembly. For example, the confirmation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria has to sometime go through the scrutiny of the National Assembly, among others. This is really the function of the National Assembly to make law for the nation.”
The law lecturer also argued that the lawmakers should not bother themselves about constituency projects. He said, “Development or constituency projects have nothing to do with lawmaking, but you may find that the electorate are asking their legislator what he has brought to the constituency. This is why, perhaps, they went on to develop the theory of constituency projects. However, the constituency projects may have a constitutional flavour of doing something to improve the lots of the people. But these are things that are within the powers of the Executive; in the states the governors and at the federation the president.  In other words, execution of development projects can only be done by a local government chairman, because there are areas that are described under schedule 4 of the constitution, or the governor of a state or the president. When budgets are made, you find that there are capital or recurrent provisions. All these things are done by the executive. I think it is the political pressure rather than the law that led to the creation of constituency projects.”
The Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumini  Jibrin, while speaking to Sunday Trust on phone at the weekend said the leadership of the House of Representatives under the Buhari  administration would  have zero tolerance for corruption.  “We will also ensure cut in governance because of  dwindling revenue due to the fall in oil price, and the National assembly should not be an exception”, he said.  Jibrin said the Eight Assembly won’t  be a puppet to the Executive but will cooperate with it and the other arms of government to succeed. “Our leadership will create the atmosphere to relate well with the Executive in order to put things right”.  He insisted there won’t be need any more for any member of the House to go to the ministries to look for favour. However, he said, “The National Assembly will be strengthened and reformed. Members will be educated on public hearings and capacity building to help them discharge their responsibilities,” Jibrin said. 

Source: Sunday Trust

Ok

When do we start probing these bunch of criminally minded thieves whom we have saddled with the responsibility of making laws for us.

LET THE PROBES BEGIN.

How do we even begin to rein in this legislathieves ?

Another epistle

hmmmmmmmm over 5billion naira per bill passed...omo talk is really expensive in naija oooooooooo