Buhari may force pay cut on NASS

In response to the yearnings of Nigerians to reduce the allowances of Na­tional Assembly members, the Presidency has summoned the leadership of the Revenue Mo­bilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on the matter

Daily Sun gathered yester­day that President Muhammadu Buhari would soon meet with the Fidelis Mbah-led leadership of the RMAFC to ascertain the correct allowances due federal lawmakers.

A National Assembly source, who declined to be named, said the President has asked for “the official details of allowances and salaries collected by Sena­tors and Representatives…

“The current economic reali­ties in the country can no longer support bogus allowances…” without giving further explana­tions.

Meanwhile, plans by the Senate to initiate a pay cut for members may have reached a dead end even before the debate on the matter takes off .

A ranking Senator said rec­ommendations of its Senate Adhoc Committee on Finance may be mere paperwork as there are legal hurdles to scale before it can be implemented.

“The National Assembly, being a bi-cameral legislature, needs to consult with the House of Representatives…It’s impos­sible for the Senate to cut al­lowances without the House of Representatives doing same…”

He said very soon, leader­ships of both houses would meet to deliberate on the matter. Besides, he reiterated that there are also legal hurdles, to scale before any pay cut could be done in the National Assembly.

“Right now, there’s no legal basis to cut Senators’ allowanc­es…for instance, I have no right to cut the salary of a Senator.

“Each Senator can only take the decision to take a pay cut… This session runs between 2015 to 2019 and after that, when a new Senator comes in, if he wants to cut his salary and al­lowances, he can do that; the Senate cannot decide for him.”

Speaking on the only legal route on the matter, he said, “it is now left to the RMAFC to decide on a realistic cut and propose it as a law to the Na­tional Assembly.”

He summed up the proposed recommendations of the pay cut as “illegal…it should be vol­untary and individually done…”

Two weeks ago, before go­ing on a six-week summer recess, Senate suspended till further notice, consideration of the report of the Senator James Manager Ad-hoc Finance Committee following a sharp disagreement among members over the reduction recommend­ed by the panel.

Deliberating behind closed doors for over two hours, Sena­tors resolved to reject reduc­tion of salaries and allowances on the premise that since other beneficiaries of the N120 bil­lion National Assembly’s annu­al budget would not follow suit, it was an unnecessary move.

Senator Matthew Urhoghide said after the closed-door ses­sion, many Senators agreed that funny allowances like the monthly N42, 000 wardrobe allowance should be cancelled.

He reasoned that substantive statutory emoluments should be sustained amid increasing fi­nancial requests from constitu­ents and other Nigerians daily.

The Senator Manager Com­mittee, recommended publica­tion of all payments accruable to each member on a quarterly basis.

At a session with newsmen, Senate spokesman, Dino Me­laye, said further action on the report was put on hold because Senate budget was an integral part of the National Assembly budget being jointly shared by seven bodies.

Last month, Senate Leader Ali Ndume explained in an interview how “the N120 bil­lion National Assembly annual budget is shared among units including 13 commissioners in the National Assembly Ser­vice Commission (NASC), the management arm of the Na­tional Assembly which has 3, 208 members and their salaries, allowances that are due to them are included, the management of the NASC itself has about 340 staff with their salaries, al­lowances and all.

“We also have 3,024 legis­lative aides, their salaries and their allowances are included. The National Institute of Leg­islative Studies (NILS), with its own board of 115 staff as at now, and the staff of the Public Accounts Committee and we also have 54 standing commit­tees and you all know how we meet.

“If we are travelling, it is the committee that meets; all the money they spent, is coming from that N120 billion and the House of Representatives has about 91 committees.

“Yet, people would just sit down, take N120 billion and divide it by 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives to get the number. It is very unfair. But, then, what this committee is doing, the Ad-hoc committee is to slash our budget from N150 billion to N120 billion which involves all the afore-men­tioned staff. Now, the commit­tee would have to look at where and how do we cut,” he said.