The Senate on Thursday, August 15, denied alleged payment of N21million monthly as salary and allowances to senators.
The Chairman Senate Committees on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu (APC – Ekiti South made this clarification in a statement in Abuja.
Adaramodu in the statement offered a clarification on the claim by Senator Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila (NNPP – Kano South) that he receives N21million monthly as running cost aside his N1million statutory salary.
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Sumaila in an interview with
with BBC Hausa Service on Wednesday morning claimed that he earns a cumulative N21million monthly in salary and allowances.
He had added that: “Given the increase effected, in the Senate, each Senator gets N21million every month as running cost.”
However, Adaramodu said that “running cost” was quite different from the salary and personal allowances of the lawmakers.
He said that the salary of lawmakers is as stipulated by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) – a body statutorily empowered to do so.
The chairman of RMAFC, Muhammed Bello, had on Tuesday, revealed that each Senator gets a monthly salary and allowances of N1,063,860:00.
Adaramodu also said that “running cost” is not peculiar to the National Assembly,
adding that “such funds are retired by relevant officers after being used for official purposes and proof of genuine expenditure.”
“It’s not a personal allowance or salary of a legislator,” he said.
He also added that the fund is also used to maintain lawmakers’ Constituency offices and staff.
He decried allegations of wasteful spending by the Parliament, adding that “the Nigerian Senate is an Assembly of accomplished and successful professionals, administrators and captains of industries, who are not driven by these often touted egregious pecuniary bits, rather for their patriotic zeal in the nation’s quest to breathe life to Nigeria’s political and socio-economic dry bones.”
Adaramodu said: “For the umpteen time, the Senate is compelled to react to the obsolete allegations of a phantom salary and personal emoluments spuriously credited to Senators monthly.
“The Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission, the agency of government that fixes political officials’ salaries and allowances, has duly disclosed the monthly personal take-home of Senators.
“However, all arms of Government and their personnel, Governors, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors-General, State Commissioners, even Boards and parastatals, including local government councils run their activities with running costs and the National Assembly is not an exemption.
“Thus the money referred to by Senator Kawu Sumaila is neither his salary nor personal allowance.
‘It’s for the daily running of offices by Senators and other attached statutory officials. It equally provides funds for Constituency office staff. It is also for oversight functions and community engagements.
“This funds are not static and it’s provided for in the annual budget. Such funds are retired by relevant officers after being used for official purposes and proof of genuine expenditure.
It’s not a personal allowance or salary of the legislator.
“The National Assembly receives about one per cent of the federal budget and has never exceeded this, even when the non-availability of funds is pervasive.
“The Nigerian Senate is an Assembly of accomplished and successful professionals, administrators and captains of industries, who are not driven by these often touted egregious pecuniary bits, rather for their patriotic zeal in the nation’s quest to breathe life to Nigeria’s political and socio-economic dry bones.”
The Nation
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