NewsSenators Don’t Earn N21m Monthly, Running Cost Not Salary, Allowances – Senate

Senators Don’t Earn N21m Monthly, Running Cost Not Salary, Allowances – Senate

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August 15, (THEWILL) – The Senate has again refuted claims that each Senator earned N21 million monthly, saying running cost is neither salary nor allowances.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, made the clarification on Thursday, in response to a claim by a New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) lawmaker that each Senator gets N21 million monthly as running cost.

THEWILL had reported on Wednesday, that the lawmaker representing Kano South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila, told BBC Hausa Service that “each Senator is given N21 million every month as the cost of running his office”.

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In a statement on Thursday, Adaramodu maintained that running costs were quite different from the salary and personal allowances of the lawmakers, which he noted has been fixed by the RMAFC.

The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) – a body responsible for fixing salaries and allowances of public servants, said on Tuesday that each member of the Senate collects a total monthly salary and allowances of N1,063,860.00.

The Commission gave the breakdown of the cumulative take-home pay for lawmakers to include: basic salary of N168,866:70; motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance allowance of N126,650; N42,216:66 for personal assistant; domestic staff – N126,650:00; entertainment – N50,660:00; utilities – N50,660; newspapers/periodicals – N25,330:00; wardrobe allowance – N42,216,66:00; house maintenance – N8,443.33 and constituency allowance – N422,166:66.

Senator Adaramodu, who submitted that running costs were not peculiar to the legislature for running of their offices, further clarified 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 the legislator”. He added that such funds were also used for constituency office staff.

The Senate spokesman, who expressed strong reservations over the narrative of wasteful spending by the parliament, declared 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”.

His statement reads in part: “For the umpteenth 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 Fiscal Allocation Commission, the agency of government that fixes political officials’s 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.

“These 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 1% of the federal budget and has never exceeded this, even when the nonavailability 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.”

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