The National Assembly has put measures in place to ensure that its jumbo allowances are not slashed by the Executive.

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the legislators had, through the amended 1999 Constitution, removed their budget from the Federal Government’s overheads and made it part of the annual statutory transfers that must be released directly to beneficiaries.

It was learnt that with this move, the National Assembly’s budget could not be altered even if the national budget must be cut to tackle the effects of an unexpected revenue shortfall as long as it had been signed into law by the President.

Other bodies receiving funds from statutory transfers include the Niger Delta Development Commission, Independent National Electoral Commission, National Judicial Council and Universal Basic Education Commission.

A top government official, who confirmed this, said it was clear that the Constitution was amended without public debate to guard against the kind of public outcry against legislators’ jumbo pay, which began in November 2010.

The source, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said, “Contrary to public view that the National Assembly has reviewed recurrent expenditure downward, the reduction is a make-believe, because of the transfer of the lawmakers’ budget, which used to be under the Federal Government overheads, to statutory transfers.

“Now, if the President signs the bill into law, if they (the legislators) decide that they want their entire allocation now, since it is under statutory transfers, they will get it. The implication also is that if the government can’t achieve its revenue target, and there is going to be any budget cut, the government will give them that money statutorily.”

According to the amended 1999 Constitution, Section 81 of the Principal Act is altered by substituting for the existing subsection (3), a new subsection “(3).”

The new subsection “(3)” states, “The amount standing to the credit of the (a) Independent National Electoral Commission (b) National Assembly and (c) Judiciary, in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation shall be paid directly to the said bodies respectively. In the case of the Judiciary, such amount shall be paid to the National Judicial Council for disbursement to the heads of the courts established for the Federation and the states under Section 6 of this constitution.”

Before the amendment, the Constitution simply said, “Any amount standing to the credit of the Judiciary in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation shall be paid directly to the National Judicial Council for disbursement to the heads of the courts established for the Federation and the states under section 6 of this Constitution.” No mention was made of the National Assembly.

However, another top government official close to the budget process said, “Recurrent expenditure is made up of four main items – statutory transfers, debt servicing, overheads and personnel costs. Items that go into statutory transfers are defined by the law and are usually formula-driven. They are prioritised and so you must allocate them first. You can’t reduce them.

“The National Assembly’s budget was formerly under personnel and overheads. Now that they (the legislators) have put their budget under statutory transfers, you can’t touch it. They (the legislators) have increased their allocation by N121bn. But because they have moved their budget to statutory transfers, the Executive cannot challenge it. When it was under overheads, if it was N100bn, for instance, the Executive could say, ‘no, you can only get N50bn.’”

However, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, said, though the amended Constitution provided that the legislators would no longer need to go through the Executive to access their funds, it did not mean that they would not account for the money spent.

He said, “The so-called statutory transfer is nothing new within the context of our constitution. What it means is that the National Assembly is now self-accounting. Under Section 85 of the Constitution, the Auditor-General shall audit all the accounts of all the departments of the government, including the National Assembly.”

With the addition of the National Assembly’s budget, statutory transfers have increased from about N183bn in the 2010 budget to N496.62bn in 2011.

Of the N496.62bn statutory transfers approved by the assembly, NDDC got N54.32bn; Judiciary, N95bn; UBEC, N62.38bn; INEC, N52.18bn; while the National Assembly got the largest share of N232.74bn.


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PDP na wao

Since many of them won't be coming back, as I'm sure they must be aware, what good will this amendment do them?

trying to cushion the grounds for their friends and allies who would be replacing them. Don't forget this amendment may include a juicy pension as well.

These people don't care about Nigeria; just their pockets