Senators entitled to only N1.06m monthly – RMAFC

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has said the N13.5 million the National Assembly is paying each senator at the moment is alien to law.

The total monthly entitlement of each Senator as salary and allowances is N1,063,860, it said in a statement yesterday

Senator Shehu Sani stirred up controversy three weeks ago when he revealed that each senator is paid N13.5 million monthly as “running cost” in addition to N750,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances.

But RMAFC spokesperson, Ibrahim Mohammed, said  the actual entitlement of a senator consisted of the basic salary of N168,866:70; motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance allowance, N126,650:00; personal assistant pay N42,216:66; domestic staff 126,650:00 and entertainment, N50,660:00.

Other benefits include: utilities, N50,660:00; newspapers/periodicals N25,330:00; wardrobe allowance, N42,216,66:00; house maintenance, N8,443.33:00 and constituency allowance, N422,166:66.

“The Law on Salaries and Allowances of Public Office Holders is very clear. As such, only the management of the National Assembly Service Commission can explain the N13.5 million running cost allegedly being enjoyed by each Senator. The Act only covers salary and allowances, not running cost” he said.

The statement added that auditing does not fall within the purview of the Commission and  that any payments enjoyed by any political, or public office holders outside those provided in the remuneration Act of 2008 is not known to the Commission and the Chief Accounting Officer of the Agencies concerned should explain it.

The commission therefore urged the general public to visit its website for details of the present Remuneration package for Political, Public and Judicial Office holders in Nigeria to avoid misinformation and misrepresentation of facts.

How running cost rose  from N3.4m to N13.5m

A source in the Senate told our correspondent senators used to receive about N3.4m as running cost monthly between 1999 and 2003.

“At the beginning of this democracy it was N10m quarterly and many Senators were not aware of it. I can remember vividly I was the one that drew the attention of my senator to it during one of the Sallah celebration when he was broke.

“The procedure then was that each senator would apply before it would be released to that person.  For months, my senator was not aware of it until I told him,” he said.

He said over the years the senators succeeded in tripling the running cost as their annual budget increases.

The budget of the National Assembly rose from N115bn in 2016  to N125bn in last year’s budget.

“You know as their budget increased so also their running cost. In fact, there was a time they collected N60m quarterly, that is N20m monthly,” he said.

The source, a senior staff of the National Assembly said: “The N13.5m quoted by Senator Sani is not static. It goes up and down depending on what the National Assembly gets at the end of the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting. I know there was a month they got N9m.”

Budget details released by National Assembly

On May 11 last year, the leadership of the National Assembly released the details of their budget for the first time since 1999 following public pressure.

From the 2017 budget, which was N125bn, 109 Senators and 360 members of the House earmarked N11.5bn for travel and transport; refreshment – N1.3bn; legislative activities – N21.4bn; vehicles – N6.6bn and consultancy – N5.88bn.

Others are publicity and advertisements – N3bn; fuel and lubricant – N2.1bn and security equipment – N1.5bn.

The total overhead for the National Assembly in 2017 was N85.8bn, while the sum of N14.9bn was for capital and N23.7bn for personnel costs.

Shehu Sani’s disclosure

Senator Sani (APC, Kaduna) who started the running cost controversy was not available for comment last night.

In an interview on March 7 Sani said : “But what I am saying is that that money (N13.5 million per month) must be receipted for what you do with it. But what you are given to go and spend without any accountability is N750, 000.00.

“The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every Senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million, but it is not the cash that is given to you.

“You will be told that you have N200 million with an agency of government for which you will now submit projects equivalent to that amount. And it is that agency of government that will go and do those projects for you.

“Now, the corruption comes when the projects are not done and the money is taken. But right now, it is difficult to do that because NGOs and transparency groups have come into it. They track every allocation made to you and where they are being used.”

Senate reaction to Shehu Sani’s disclosure

Spokesperson of the Senate, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi was unavailable for comment last night. He did not reply to the text message sent to him.

But on March 11, this year in his reaction to Sani’s disclosure said their salaries and allowances are well captured in various line times.

“If people had looked critically at the budget of the National Assembly which has since been made public, they would have seen that various line items like traveling, medicals, consultancy and the rest were captured in the budget and they were the funds divided for each Senator’s use.

“Almost all holders of elective and appointive offices have running costs allocated to their offices and that cannot be said to be part of their salaries”, Abdullahi stated.

Our running cost not illegal – Rep

House spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas could not be reached for reaction of the House on the matter as he is said to be on an official assignment outside the country.

However, a member of the House confirmed to Daily Trust that indeed they collect running costs and salary, totalling over N7 million monthly and that it cannot be said to be illegal.

The lawmaker, who did not want to be named as he is not the official spokesman of the House, said the amount is meant for travelling, medical, newspaper, constituency offices, entertainment, among others.

The source said it is not only members of the National Assembly that are entitled to such amount, that even ministers and directors in ministries collect such.

“I don’t know why they talk about this all the time as if we’re the only ones collecting such amount. Members of the Executive too collect, except for constituency office,” the lawmaker said.