N’Assembly Budget: Official Documents Prove Sanusi Right
By Obinna Chima, 12.03.2010
As the controversy on the exact budgetary overheads of the federal legislature continues to rage, THISDAY investigations have revealed that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was right in his assessment that the National Assembly accounts for the 25 percent of total federal government overheads of 536.27 billion.

Documents obtained from the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper forwarded to the National Assembly and accompanied by a letter signed by President Goodluck Jonathan last September, revealed that the total federal government overhead budget for 2010 is 536.27 billion, of which the overhead budget of the National Assembly is 136,159,768.12.

These were the same figures quoted by Sanusi during the lecture at the Igbinedion University last weekend that generated the ruckus from the National Assembly and the subsequent attempt by the Senate Committees on Appropri-ation, Finance, Banking and MDGs to downplay the National Assembly’s overheads relative to the federal government’s overhead budget.

The committees had summoned Sanusi and the Finance Minster, Dr. Olusegun Aganga last Wednesday to clarify the statement on the lawmakers’recurrent expenditure budget.

During the hearing, Sanusi bluntly stood his ground and refused to apologise over the statement, which he readily acknowledged was made by him that the National Assembly accounts for 25 per cent of the Federal Government’s total overhead budget.

Even after Aganga, who shockingly denied a statement credited to him when he said a committee would be set up to review funds allocated to the National Assembly, faulted Sanusi’s figures, the CBN governor insisted that the figures he quoted last weekend at the Igbinedion University were the same obtained from the Budget Office, which handles all budgetary issues.

“I confirm that 25 per cent of total overheads of the nation goes to the National Assembly,” he said.On his part, Aganga, who was the first to testify at the public hearing, told the senators: “I have never made any statement to the effect that I was in the process of cutting the expenditure of the National Assembly or the national budget.

“I don’t know why I was invited; it wasn’t clear to me. I have not and I did not and would not make any statement to anybody in the media that I believe could be so misconstrued.”He said: “As public figures, we get quoted out of context every time, so we must be careful what we say and how we say it,” he said.

Further findings also confirmed from the Ministry of Finance’s website that there was no ambiguity on what constitutes the exact definition of overheads.

In a publication posted on its website titled “A Citizen’s Guide to Understanding the 2009 Federal Budget”, it was explicitly captured in Part A under General Issues, the components of Recurrent Expenditure.
Overheads as contained in the document are basically costs such as payment for electricity, water, telecommunications, office rent, office equipment and consumables, staff training, transportation, etc.

Analysts are of the opinion that NASS should have done its homework first before engaging in the drama that led to the hot exchange between members of the Committee and the CBN Governor.

The role of the Finance Minister, Olusegun Aganga in the entire saga has been considered unwholesome in view of the fact that the MTEF document forwarded by the president to the NASS last September originated from the Ministry of Finance.
Most members of the public, including commentators were surprised that Aganga sat on the fence when confronted by the committees on the issue.

Sources at the ministry confirmed that the minister was in a binder over the development and he is alleged to have sent another version of the computation to the National Assembly, ostensibly to exonerate himself and align this with the views of the members of the committees.

Anybody saying otherwise is definitely deceiving himself