Amosun did not pay salary,Amosun did not senators their allowances......... A face-off is brewing between Nigerian Senators the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala over the non-payment of their statutory quarterly constituency and sundry allowances said to have accumulated since July this year. The Senators have accused Okonjo- Iewala, who doubles as Coordinating Minister of Economy, of deliberately withholding their entitlements. Sunday Independent, gathered on Friday from a Senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity, that the only funds so far being remitted into the accounts of individual Senators, are their salaries and other sitting allowances, He however revealed that these are presently being “paid in peace meal. We’ve been getting bank alerts on that for now”. The issue of unpaid allowances formed part of the initial grievances of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senators, who recently met with President Goodluck Jonathan and the party’s National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, over the contentious ward congresses in which a majority of the Senators allegedly lost to their state governors and on the basis of which they (Senators) demanded an automatic tickets from the Presidency and the leadership of the PDP. Although Jonathan was said to have assured the Senators that he would look into the matter, independent inquires by some of the lawmakers revealed that the delay in payment of the allowances, was from the Finance Ministry, which, according to a Senator, was “deliberately withholding our money for reasons nobody, including Madam Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, has been able to explain”. The Senators told Sunday Independent that beyond the claims of unavailability of funds by the Finance Ministry, their investigation showed that there was clandestine conspiracy allegedly involving the state governors to deliberately starve them of funds, so that they will be financially insolvent to prosecute their election commitments in the 2015 general elections. One of the angry Senators fumed: “What rubbish are they telling us that there is scarcity of funds? Has the Executive arm not been spending money as they like? “Even the ministers, who are contesting for the various elective offices in this coming election, where have they been getting all the money they are throwing around? Are the Presidency and the party (PDP) not spending money? How about Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala herself? “Mr. President is only pretending that he does not know what is going on. It is clear that the whole thing is a conspiracy against the National Assembly lawmakers. They just want us to fail this election”, he said. Another Senator from one of the zones in the North, told Sunday Independent that if by the end of November the accumulating allowances were not paid, they would be compelled to engage the appropriate authorities responsible for making the funds available. He threatened: “We will certainly not take any more frivolous excuses. We shall engage Okonjo-Iweala and co on this matter. We expect that by the end of this month (November), not only our salaries, but all our outstanding allowances and official financial entitlements, should have been paid in full. Meanwhile, Sunday Independent findings at the Federal Ministry of Finance, revealed that the issue of unpaid allowances of the lawmakers was due to an alleged serious shortfall in the government’s revenue inflow accrued from the crude oil sales. The ministry source, who gave the unofficial position of things to Sunday Independent, disclosed that the drop in the oil benchmark recently in the international market grossly affected the nation’s oil revenue projections, which has compelled the government through the Ministry to re-prioritise her financial commitments. His words: “The only option left now is for the lawmakers to exercise a little more patience. The recent ugly and unforeseen development in the international oil market is neither government’s or anybody’s making. “Situations like this often arise midway after projections have been done in the annual budgetary appropriations approved by the same lawmakers. What we in the ministry are doing now is to manage the situation. The economic recession is a global affliction and it is even worse now among oil producing nations like Nigeria that have experienced a significant drop in revenue flow from the global oil market. “So, it has affected every facet of government spending and unless the ministry does some kind of adjustments and re-alignment of priorities, most things will be affected cash wise”, the ministry source said. Even so, there are strong indications that their hopes to enjoy automatic tickets on PDP platform may have been dashed. This is as ue to warnings by the state governors to the party leadership and Jonathan.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 15:09:34 +0000
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