Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, has released to the public, his payslips for the months of October, 2016 to March, 2017 to the public.
This was as the House described as misleading, claims by the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, that the N115 billion 2016 budget of the National Assembly was for its 469 members.
Dogara’s payslips for January to March, sighted by the Nigerian Tribune, showed his basic salary as N206,425.83; constituency, N175,461.96 and recess, N20,642.58. The total income is N402,530.37.
However, Dogara has N55,952.50 deducted from his salary as PAYE monthly and the sum of N70,000 termed APC deduction from his salary. The deductions leave the Speaker with N276,577.87 as total pay for the month.
The APC deduction, according to the payslips, commenced in February 2017, with the sum of N140,000 deducted from Dogara’s salary.
Responding to other statements directed at the National Assembly by Governor el-Rufai, the House of Representatives said its budget covers, among others, salaries, allowances, expenditure and running cost of 469 members; salaries, allowances of about 3,000 legislative aides and salaries, allowances, equipment and maintenance of about 5,000 staff in the bureaucracy of the National Assembly.
In a press statement read to newsmen by spokesman of the House, Honourable Abdulrazaq Namdas, at the National Assembly, Abuja, on Tuesday, the House said “the National Assembly has agencies too. The National Assembly Service Commission has a staff strength of about 500. The National Institute for Legislative Studies is also a parastatal of the National Assembly that serves as a legislative think-tank and a highly rated academic institution, which serves not only the National Assembly but also state houses of Assembly and the international community. It is currently building its headquarters which is world class. It has to be funded.
“el-Rufai’s mischievous publication carefully ignores the fact that the bureaucracy of National Assembly and its agencies and 469 members need travel and transport support. They require medical attention, offices, equipment and all the support available to others in the public service.
“The National Assembly has buildings to construct and maintain. There is the need for training and re-training of staff and even capacity building for members and bureaucracy to attend conferences both local and foreign.
“Some of the most critical work the National Assembly does is oversight. It costs a lot of money to conduct proper oversight of executive agencies to save money and ensure governmental efficiency for the Nigerian people. Public hearings by the National Assembly and its committees have become a regular feature of our democracy, because citizen engagement and consultation is cardinal for running a democratic government. It costs a lot of money.
“It is most uncharitable to ignore the fact that the National Assembly is an arm of government, not a department in the executive branch.”
The statement added that some departments and agencies in the executive had higher budgets than that of the legislature.
“Budget of so many agencies in the executive is higher than that of National Assembly, an arm of government. Such agencies as NCC – N102 billion; CBN – N421 billion; NPA – N250 billion; NIMASA – N100 billion; FIRS – N146 billion; Customs – N81 billion and NNPC, whose budget runs into trillions are some examples.
“Indeed, the National Assembly budget is about two per cent of the country’s budget. Yes, the National Assembly has voluntarily agreed to publish its budget from 2017, as a responsible and accountable democratic institution.
“What happens to 98 per cent of the national budget should engage our attention too. We are sure that if 10 per cent of the public scrutiny National Assembly receives is also devoted to those spending the other 98 per cent, Nigeria would be better for it,” the House said.
It also denied that the National Assembly budget was opaque, adding that since 2010 when the constitution was amended and National Assembly placed on the first line charge, its budget became part of statutory transfers, together with the judiciary, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and others which cannot be found in the nation’s budget but in the case of the National Assembly, from 1999 to 2010, the details of its budget have been contained in the national budget.
The statement added that details of the budget of the judiciary and INEC, unlike that of the national assembly, could not be found in the National Budget, adding that their details existed elsewhere.
The House said it had directed the Clerk to the National Assembly to publish details of the National Assembly budget from 2017.
“The Kaduna State governor chose to give headings of its budget on security related matters. Maybe he will give further details of actual security expenditures at the appropriate time. He claimed that the state’s accounts have been audited. No grounds have been broken here.
“The response by the Kaduna State governor completely missed the point. The Speaker’s call was for el-Rufai to extend the campaign for openness and transparency to other arms of government, including the governors’ expenditures on security votes and local government funds. He merely doubled down on his campaign on National Assembly budget, leaving out the other aspects of Speaker’s request.
“We wish to advise the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, to concentrate his efforts in governing Kaduna State and stop undermining and distracting the National Assembly in playing its constitutionally assigned role in nation building.
“We are aware that there are serious security issues he should be grappling with in Southern Kaduna and other governmental issues facing him. He should not give the impression that he has no challenging work to do in Kaduna State.
“We decided to respond only to correct some factual inaccuracies and set the records straight,” the statement added.
The House also said what el-Rufai published was the security budget of Kaduna State and not his security vote expenditure as such.
