www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37425:cash-strapped-lawmakers-seek-release-of-2011-first-quarter-allocations&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

Cash-strapped lawmakers seek
release of 2011 first quarter
allocations

HIT by funds paucity arising from huge
campaign expenses, some members of the
two chambers of the National Assembly,
have reportedly asked the Executive arm of
government to promptly release their
recurrent expenditures from the 2011
Appropriation Bill yet to be passed by the
lawmakers.

But the Executive, which prefers the old
order of disbursing such allocations by mid-
February and at the statutory 40 or 50 per
cent of the expenditures of the preceding
year until the budget is passed, is not set to
oblige the legislators their demand.

This has consequently heightened fears in
the public sector that the recurring
Legislature-Executive row over the passage
of the yearly budget bill may be re-enacted.

In the past, the source of disagreement
between the two arms of government on
the budget was usually on the amount
allocated to Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs).

The Federal Ministry of Finance, which is
under pressure from the lawmakers to
disburse the overhead votes for January to
March, reportedly told the legislators that it
could not meet their demand because the
Federal Government was yet to get money
to pay civil servants’ salaries for January.

But the lawmakers have allegedly insisted
on having their way as those who won at
the parties ’ primaries say they need the
money to step up their campaigns for the
April elections while the losers at the polls,
claim that they need the funds to start
preparing for their exit from the parliament.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze
said that the senate “did not and will not
engage in such demand because there was
not reason for senators to demean
themselves. ”

According to him, “it is part of the usual
blackmail of the National Assembly which
would not distract the attention of the
lawmakers from the good work they are
doing to uplift the nation. ”
‘’Let me say categorically that there is no
iota of truth in that allegation. It is part of
the usual blackmail of the legislature by
people who don ’t mean well for this
country. As far as we are concerned, the
relevant committees of the senate are
working diligently to see how the budget
can be passed on time and we will not be
worried by such blackmail ’’, he added.

When contacted on the issue, the House of
Representatives spokesman, Eseme Eyibo,
described as untrue the claims by officials
of the finance ministry that members of the
National Assembly were mounting pressure
on them to release their first quarter
allowances.
Eyibo said such claims existed only in the
imagination of the peddlers.
He said: “That is simply a rumour that exists
in the imagination of its peddlers. It has
never happened that members of the
National Assembly or anybody at all would
be asking that money be released from a
budget that has not been passed. ”

Eyibo said that no member of the National
Assembly particularly the House of
Representatives would make such a
demand because as lawmakers, they knew
the position of the law on the matter.

He added that even President Goodluck
Jonathan lacked the powers to order the
release of funds from a budget that has not
been approved by the legislature.
“The budget proposal is an estimate and it
still remains an estimate until it is subjected
to the process of appropriation and passed.
Not even a President has such powers to
force the Ministry of Finance to release
monies from a budget awaiting legislative
processing. ”

But The Guardian learnt that both members
of the two chambers of the National
Assembly in their bid to offset their
campaign expenses, which they incurred
during the just concluded parties ’ primaries,
have allegedly mounted pressure on the
finance ministry to release the overhead
costs from the budget pending its passage.


Ministry sources however insisted that both
the legislators, who won and the ones, who
lost at the primaries, are in the forefront of
the drive to see the funds disbursed now.

Although it is not the norm, it has become
the practice of the Executive, which is often
faced with delay in the passage of the
yearly budget since 2000 to disburse the
funds to various institutions of government
in February of each year when the budget
had not been passed. There is however a
caveat: The amount disbursed must not
exceed 40 or 50 per cent of the votes for
each sector during the same period in the
preceding year.

But the lawmakers, who are said to be cash-
pressed, have since the first second week
of last month, approached the Minister of
Finance, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, to release the
first tranche of the budget to them,
knowing that they leave office before the
end of second quarter of the year.

HIT by funds paucity arising from huge campaign expenses, some members of the two chambers of the National Assembly, have reportedly asked the Executive arm of government to promptly release their recurrent expenditures from the 2011 Appropriation Bill yet to be passed by the lawmakers.

What has CAMPAIGN EXPENSES to do with OUR Budget?

Whenever I read garbage like this, I feel like renouncing my Nigerian citizenship.

When the minister allegedly declined, The
Guardian learnt that the affected legislators
threatened to delay the eventual passage of
the budget.

Since President Goodluck Jonathan
presented 2011 Appropriation Bill to the
National Assembly on December 15, 2010,
no serious work has been on it by the
Legislature.

Promises of speedy passage of the budget
by the lawmakers have not been fulfilled.
When the National Assembly reconvened
from their Christmas and New Year break
last week to appraise the lapses associated
with the ongoing voters ’ registration
exercise, they only amended the 2010
Electoral Act to enable the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) extend
the exercise.

In fact, throughout last week, it was only
the House of Representatives Committee on
Labour and Productivity considered the
Ministry of Labour and Productivity budget
of over N9 billion.

The panel was unimpressed with the
ministry ’s request for N622.5 million for
foreign and local trips in fiscal 2011. It also
frowned at the ministry ’s extra-budgetary
spending of trips without the approval of
the National Assembly.

Officials said the quest by the lawmakers to
have their recurrent allocations released
heightened before and during the just
concluded primaries of political parties in
the country.

A senior official in the minister’s office
confirmed to The Guardian that the
agitations for the release of the funds to the
National Assembly from both the lawmakers
who won and those, who lost at the polls
began last month and became fierce during
the parties ’ elections.
“The minister has been under intense
pressure from the legislators to release their
first quarter recurrent allocations to them,
even though they
have not passed the budget. The pressure is
coming even as we are also struggling to
get money to pay our members of staff
salaries for the month of January.
“We have tried to explain to them, but they
won’t budge, insisting that they need their
money, probably for campaigns by those
who were successful at the primaries and
for those who are not returning, to ensure
that they take a bite before they leave the
scene in May this year, ’’ he added.

Although the official did not state the exact
amount of the legislators ’ allocations for the
first quarter, he simply said: “It involves
several billions of naira for the two
chambers. ”

Last December 15, Jonathan presented a
N4.2 trillion ($27.3 billion) to the National
Assembly for approval. The legislature,
which promised to speedily pass the first
economic blueprint by the President since
he took over from the late President Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua, however, proceeded on
Christmas and New Year break without any
serious work on the Appropriation Bill.

The Appropriation Bill contained a recurrent
expenditure of N2.5 trillion, which is 59 per
cent of the total budget. Top on the high
recurrent expenditures were allocations to
the National Assembly for the lawmakers ’
salaries and other expenses.

The Guardian further learnt that the
legislators have also resorted to threats,
insisting that the 2011 budget, which the
Executive wants early passage so that it can
raise the ante of implementation would be
delayed if the Finance Minister did not
quickly accede to their demand.

Conventionally, since the return of
democracy in Nigeria, due to delay in the
passage of budgets by the National
Assembly, the Budget Office of the
Federation releases 40 per cent of the
previous year ’s votes to all Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of
government in the middle of February each
year to enable them run their operations,
pending the passage of the substantive
year ’s budget.

It was also learnt that in order to avoid a
face-off with the legislators, Aganga had to
shelve his planned trip to Davos,
Switzerland for this year ’s World Economic
Forum last week after returning from the
Europe and United States $500 million
Eurobond road show and eventual issue to
attend to them.

Several attempts to confirm if the requested
first quarter recurrent expenditures had
been released to the legislators proved
abortive, as the affected officials did not
respond to The Guardian ’s inquiries.

Only last Wednesday, the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) raised the lending rate to
discourage borrowing by politicians for
electioneering purposes, explaining that
their high overheads and reckless
spending for the forthcoming April polls
pose serious threats to inflationary controls.