Senators, Reps to spend N7bn on cars

Senators, Reps to spend N7bn on cars

•National Assembly releases details of own budgetFrom Fred Itua, Kemi Yesufu and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

Two years after it made the  promise, the National Assembly yesterday unveiled the details of its expected 2017 expenditure.

Similarly, the National Assembly increased its budget from N115billion to N125billion. The proposal submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari, had N115billion budgeted for the assembly.

In 2016, N115billion was also budgeted for the National Assembly.

According to the breakdown of the budget made available by the Senate spokesman, Abdullahi Sabi, the management of both chambers would get N14.9billion.

The Senate was to gulp N31.3 billion, while the House of Representatives was expected to expend N49.05 billion. A total of N1.856 billion would be spent on personal cost of 109 senators. Each senator would earn about N17,03,206 million per annum.

The House of Representatives on the other hand earmarked N4.923 billion on personal cost of members. Members would earn about N13,677,064 million each per year.

Senators were expected to spend N2.759 billion on purchase of new vehicles, while members of the House of Representatives would spend N3.845 on the same item.

The breakdown did not include overhead and capital expenditures of lawmakers.

The National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) would get N2.415billion. In the same vein, legislative aides would receive N9.602 billion.

The Public Accounts Committee of the Senate would get N118.9 million, while its House of Representatives counterpart would get N142.764. General Services Department of the National Assembly would spend N12.584 billion.

National Assembly Legislative Institute would receive N4.373 billion and Service Wide Vote stood at N391.396.

It was the first time since the inauguration of the 8th Senate, that the leadership of the National Assembly would make its budget public.

Senate President Bukola Saraki had in 2015, promised to make the details of the assembly budget public.

However, new facts emerged yesterday why the passage of the 2017 Appropriation Bill was delayed, particularly by the Senate.

Daily Sun gathered that angry lawmakers, who felt shortchanged in the allocation and distribution of constituency projects, vowed to scuttle the passage of the budget, if their interest were not accommodated.

It was learnt that the Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriations, Danjuma Goje, declined to accommodate requests from his colleagues, who besieged his office to ensure that the interests of their senatorial districts were adequately captured in the budget.

It was also learnt that while Goje reportedly declined to accommodate requests from his colleagues, principal officers of the Senate, however, got juicy allocations to cater for their constituency projects in the budget.

Angered by the discrepancies, the aggrieved lawmakers, vowed to fight until the alleged lopsidedness in the allocation of projects was corrected by the Goje-led committee.