Revealed: How Senators, Reps landed in jumbo pay mess •Quarterly pay meant for running of offices -Senate spokesman
Written by Taiwo Adisa, Abuja
Sunday, 12 December 2010

Emerging details about the controversial jumbo pay package of Senators and members of House of Representatives have confirmed that the legislators  ran into the ditch of jumbo pay by default.

Investigations by the Sunday Tribune confirmed that the lawmakers landed in the jumbo pay mess as a result of their desire to curb the perceived excesses of their presiding officers overtime.

It was gathered that Senators often felt diminished when they were compelled by the operating system in the National Assembly to seek approval for nearly everything from the Senate president.

“Even the senate President too had to apply for everything concerning the running of his office and his local and foreign trips from the Senate president,” a source said adding that the lawmakers feared that the presiding officers were becoming overbearing.

It was also gathered that the bid to reduce the reliance of Senators on their presiding officers led to uprising which eventually led to impeachment moves which they were to tag the proverbial “banana peel.”

It was gathered that Senators and members of the House of Representatives were appalled that no matter the amount of money they take to their constituencies, they often return broke and that they have to apply to the Senate President and Speakers at every interval.

That kind of system was creating a situation of overreliance on the presiding officers. Again many lawmakers felt that they were not being treated equally as some Senators and Rep members were exploiting their closeness to the presiding officers to get more from the system, a source said.

It was confirmed that former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim was said to have invented what was called the self accounting procedure in 2002 as a way of avoiding the proverbial banana peel. The House of Representatives copied the style but only went full blast in 2010.

Sources in the Senate told the Sunday Tribune that a former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara was faced with impeachment in 2004 when he resisted the push to enhance the quarterly allocation of his colleagues.

Wabara, a retired Civil Servant was said to have argue at a close session that the self accounting procedure cannot be aligned with the civil service rules. He was said to have argued that if the lawmakers apply the self accounting procedure, many of them might end up in jail especially if the government sticks to the civil service rules.

Sources however said that the push to cut down the powers of the presiding officers made the lawmakers to consistently eat into the designated Pool Account of each chamber.

The Pool Accounts usually take care of items including Foreign and Local Travels, Constituency tours, medical allowances, stationeries in constituencies offices, stationeries in National Assembly offices, purchase of periodicals, (local and foreign), local and foreign training allowances, newspapers and publicity activities.

The funds were usually applied for when needed.

It was gathered that with the persistent agitations, funds in the pool were being reduced and allotted to each legislator’s account.

“It all started with items that directly affect the legislators themselves, funds for those were tabulated and paid quarterly to the lawmakers’ accounts.

The funds however continued to rise after each legislative session. But apart from salaries, those funds are not meant for the lawmakers. They are running costs for the offices in Abuja and at the constituencies,” a source in the legislature said.

Investigations revealed that the push in the House of Representatives in June actually exposed the policy which had been adopted by the Senate before now.

Investigations revealed that as at June 2007, members of the House of Representatives had the sum of N6.5 million allocated to them as running costs per quarter. The funds grew to N27 million from July 2007 and by June, the lawmakers succeeded in jacking it up to N42 million per quarter.

At the end of the last Senate in 2007, the allocation to Senators stood at N28 million per quarter and by Before July of the year, the allocations went to N35 million. It now stands at N45 million per quarter. It was discovered that the rivalry engineered by the Dimeji Bankole leadership of the House apparently informed the insistence of the lawmakers in the lower house to equal the N45 million per quarter allocation of Senators.


http://tribune.com.ng/sun/index.php/front-page-articles/2731

I will caption the action of the legislators as "National Assembly swoops on National Cake". How do you see this caption, my people?

“Even the senate President too had to apply for everything concerning the running of his office and his local and foreign trips from the Senate president,

i'm wandering if someone could please explain this statement