This is the natural way NASS does business. It is the INTERNAL Affairs of NASS. No one should attempt to investigate it. It is not subject to AGF's poke-nosing. Everyone, back off!
On Sunday, 31 July 2016, 11:39, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:
This is serious. Legislators who make laws are breakers of the laws made. It is shameful.
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
--My People:The allegation of "budget padding" - which is actually outright forgery - as different from "budget amendment" (which is legal) is so well-and forthrightly explained by this colorful House of Rep member Lawal Gamau, that - wallahi! - even a dumb fellow will know what really went on. Contrary to Honorable Gamau, we don't even have to be "honorable" members to understand the padding! :-)I have even had to revise my Fiasco diagraph, to be as follows:<image.png>So the padding occurred between Versions 2 and 3 of the Budget process.Yauwa!Bolaji AlukoShaking his headNigeria's Budget Has Always Been Padded Since 2011 – Federal Lawmaker
<image.png>A member of Transparency Group, a pressure group in the House of Representatives on Thursday said the lower legislative chamber has been engaged in the padding of Nigeria's budget since 2011.Rep. Lawal Gumau, who was speaking on Sunrise Daily said "since 2011 when I came, there was no year when there was no padding.He also noted that it (padding) has been going on before the 7th Assembly as members of the 6th Assembly had warned them that it will happen and "we started fighting it since then."After the budget is prepared from the committees, it goes to the Appropriation Committee and they will work on the budget and return it to the members in the chamber for everybody to see, read and agree on it. Padding does not come in up till that point."Immediately after the House has passed the budget, before they submit it to the President is when the padding", he said, maintaining that "the members will not know that after they passed the budget, something (additional line projects) was inserted.These assertions, according to him, were made without the consent of the House.
Rep Gumau, however, made it clear that he is neither in support of either Speaker Yakubu Dogara or Rep. Abdulmumini Jibrin but he is in support of the allegations made against the leadership of the House.He said what his group wants is for the allegations made by Rep. Jibrin to be investigated by the appropriate authorities."What is the Attorney General of the Federation doing", he wondered, adding that "is he not the law officer? If there is a petition, can't he investigate or give an order for an investigation to be carried out?"We have EFCC, we have ICPC; we have the Nigeria Police. What are they doing that they cannot investigate? What we are saying is that the House open this issue for an investigation", he said, insisting that the internal mechanism of the House be jettisoned.He said the anti-graft agencies will not be interfering with the business of the House because they will be doing so after "a petition" and "not that they will come on their own".He likened the situation to the trial of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, over alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rules, insisting that "it is the same thing with padding, if the investigation takes place and it is convincingly explained to everybody in Nigeria that there was no padding, then we will rest our case", he maintained.On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 5:51 AM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:<image.png>My People:The main protagonists here are shaping up to be:1. Jibrin, former Appropriations Committee Chair2. Dogara, Speaker3. Lasun, Deputy Speaker4. Ogor, Minority Leader5. Doguwa, House Whip, and lately6. Namdas, Public and Media Chair7. Ossai, Ethics Committee Chairthe last two making this an all-House fiasco instead of a House-leadership-only affair.And we have not heard from the Senate yet.....what did it know and when did it know it about this padding?There should be honor among conspirators - and there is little being shown.And there you have it.Bolaji AlukoShaking his head__________________________________________________________________LEADERSHIPThe Budget Padding Fiasco
— Jul 29, 2016 4:03 am | Leave a commentThere is no better way to describe the on-going war of words, outpouring of invectives and buck-passing over the circumstances that led to the inglorious ouster of the chairman, House of Representatives committee on appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin. Soon after his replacement by his Kano kinsman, Mustapha Dawaki, who hitherto was in charge of Housing, Jibrin spilled the beans of the behind-the-scene illicit padding of the budget, which he said was masterminded by the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara and his deputy, Yusuf Lasun. The most intriguing of the complicity, according to Jibrin, is that it had the buy-in of the leader of opposition in the House, Leo Ogor and House whip Alhassan Doguwa, who should be the chief disciplinary officer in the Green chamber.In the last one week the blackmail and propaganda on who did what has exposed the villainy of the House that was seen as less scandalous than the Senate that had been in the eye of the storm since the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly, last year. Already, no fewer than 113 lawmakers have demanded for investigation into alleged budget padding in the House of Representatives by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It has also been revealed that lawmakers out-did themselves by jerking up the appropriation. Despite strident denials by top officials of the National Assembly, it has been discovered that the legislators padded the 2016 budget to the tune of N481 billion.Many lawmakers jumped on the gravy train and routed their requests for 'constituency projects' through Speaker Dogara, it was alleged. Besides these constituency projects, chairmen of 10 committees, it was further said, "padded" over N284 billion through 2000 projects, into the budget.The grandstanding of the two sides in this contestation notwithstanding, we hold that the matter should not be swept under the carpet by a government that derives legitimacy through its anti-corruption stance. It is presumptuous for the chairman of the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Nicholas Ossai, to have dabbled into the fray by insisting that anything done at plenary or premises of the House cannot be investigated by external bodies.For an institution that has lost all moral high ground to self-regulate, nothing short of a transparent panel of enquiry is needed to unravel the truth. Dogara has vowed to remain silent in the face of the allegations, saying he would allow the House to treat them at institutional level. This is business as usual and does not pass integrity test and common sense as he superintends over all the committees of the House. It will amount to being a judge in his own case. If they do not have anything to hide, the Speaker and other House leaders accused should come down from their high horses and explain to their beloved constituents noticed discrepancies in the budget. We call for external investigations into the matter to enable us know if our principal officers are guilty or not. The budget being a document that belongs to all Nigerians, cannot be treated as an internal or National Assembly affair alone.Like Mahatma Ghandi once posited: "Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today." While we are for the principle of separation of powers as well as checks and balances, we are sceptical that a crisis-ridden and corrupt legislature can neither be trusted nor defended. It is left for the leadership of NASS to ensure that its chambers are hallowed, not hollow, as characterised by their past selfish activities and this budget indiscretion.____________________________________________________________________-VANGUARDRevealed: NASS padded 2016 budget with N481bn
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor, Kingsley Omonobi & Johnbosco AgbakwuruABUJA—Despite strident denials by top officials of the National Assembly, it has been discovered that the legislators padded the 2016 budget to the tune of N481 billion.Documents obtained by Vanguard showed that apart from padding the budget with the huge sum, forcing the Presidency to raise alarm over it, NASS also unilaterally jerked the votes meant for constituency projects from N60 billion to N100 billion.But the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdul Jibrin, who was fired last week, had said the Speaker allowed 10 committee chairmen to insert projects worth N284 billion and washed his hands off the illegal action.The House leadership, however, said Jubrin was fired for fixing the budget, a development he vehemently denied.Vanguard found out from the document exclusively obtained from the National Assembly that the lawmakers ingeniously removed some key projects proposed by the executive or drastically reduced their costs and introduced many others not contemplated by the Presidency which prepared the budget.Among the projects which votes were surreptitiously jerked up without the knowledge of the executive, were Nigerian railway modernization project: Lagos – Kano standard gauge rail line project, which cost was raised by N32.5 billion and the consultancy dredging and river training works (N609 million) under the Ministry of Transportation.Others, according to the document, are the Code of Conduct Bureau which had N4.4billion added to its vote, provision of broadband Internet Service to National Assembly by Nigcomsat, N318 million, Training and Consultancy for Nigcomsat 2 Project, N3.5 billion etc, in the Ministry of Communications.Most scandalous, according to the document, is the case of Ministry of Works, Power and Housing where 82 new projects, principally roads, with a total provision of about N50.63 billion, were inserted in the budget.The Presidency, which reviewed the budget, said: "A large number of these projects are outside the mandate of the relevant Ministry (e.g. the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Works, Power & Housing); or statutorily outside the FGN's mandate (like intra-city and state road projects); or cannot be implemented as there are no designs or costings made for them."The amounts proposed for some MDAs' projects were increased significantly without due consultations on implementation capacity or additional financing needs for the projects.This amounts to tying down resources that could have been applied to more impactful projects in other areas."In addition, hundreds of new projects that have no relationship to the MDA's were introduced and simply cannot be implemented. Among these are the construction of town halls, township street lights, procurement of transformers and tricycles under the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and the building of classrooms under the Ministry of Agriculture etc," the document revealed.Also, the executive proposal of N4.06 billion for the provision for test kits, vaccines and anti-retroviral drugs under the Federal Ministry of Health was reduced to N1.01 billion."As a result of this reduction, there shall be vaccines stock-out by October 2016 and, among other things, the gains of polio eradication will be lost, and the government will be hampered in the battle against HIV."Very large cuts have been made to proposals for many important projects in several MDAs and the sums applied to fund hundreds of new projects."The Bill (2016 budget) cannot be implemented in its current form because some of the figures in the Bill passed do not correspond with the figures in the budget details accompanying the Bill."The aggregate expenditure as contained in the budget details as passed, is higher than that in the Appropriation Bill by about N481 billion, compared to the Appropriation Bill."The executive made provision for the sum of N60 billion to be used by members of the National Assembly in funding their constituency projects. This was increased by the National Assembly to N100 billion."It is, therefore, unclear why, in spite of this increase, the National Assembly felt it necessary to divert funds from line Ministries for their constituency projects, having already provided for same in the Service Wide votes."The amounts allocated to a number of important projects in a number of key ministries have been so reduced that they cannot be implemented. The savings from these reductions have been re-allocated to hundreds of new projects which have not been designed or costed and so cannot be implemented.Giving specific details of the projects, which votes were slashed and the fund moved to other extraneous ones, the document revealed that some key allocations for programmes/projects under the Service-Wide Votes, SWV, were either reduced or removed outright, pointing out the dangers posed by such decisions.For instance, the provision of N3 billion for adjustment to capital cost was removed, while the provision for "capital exigency" was reduced by about 56% from N12.5 billion to N5.5 billion. The executive fears the reduction may affect the ability to meet any unforeseen capital expenditure.The provision for pensions & gratuity was reduced by about N12.06 billion, while that for Public Service Wage Adjustment, PSWA, was reduced by N14 billion.Among others, allocations to the health sector for outstanding payments to health professionals (by N2bn), Internal Operations for the Armed Forces (by N3bn), and Operation Lafiya Dole (by N2bn) were also reduced. These reductions could potentially trigger industrial actions or pensioners' protests and constrain the ongoing security operations in the North-East during the fiscal year, if not remedied.The emergence of the document seems to have put paid to the claim by the NASS that it did not pad the budget, a claim dismissed by Jibrin.Jibrin had said: "When the budget harmonization committee headed by Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun gave out 80% concession across board to the executive demands during the harmonization negotiation, it was agreed that the remaining 20% should go to the entire NASS. The deputy speaker excused himself that he wanted to go and consult with Mr Speaker."He came back after a few hours and in an unprecedented display of greed, presented to me a hand written note distributing the remaining 20% to only principal officers. 70% of the 20% was reserved for Mr Speaker and himself while the remaining 30% of the 20% goes to other principal officers."How Jibrin changed 2016 budget —RepsMeamwhile, the House of Representatives, yesterday, alleged that Jibrin, single handedly changed the budget estimates presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly by adding N250 billion into it.The House also accused the embattled former Appropriations Chairman of deliberate plot to blackmail the President during the budget process by inserting funds for the so called Muhammadu Buhari Film Village in his constituency in Kano State without the consent or solicitation of the President.This is as the Chairman, House Committee on Health Services, Chike John Okafor, accused the embattled former appropriations committee chairman of tampering with the health budget by allegedly putting for himself N500 million health project in his constituency without the consent of the committee.Briefing journalists in Abuja, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, accompanied by other committee members, explained that Jibrin was removed as a result of credibility problem he had brought to the House in particular and National Assembly as a whole.He said: "His removal was based on sundry acts of misconduct, incompetence, total disregard for his colleagues and abuse of the budgetary process, Immaturity and lack of capacity to handle the Office of Chairman, Appropriations."Jibrin makes U-turn, demands police protectionMeantime, Jibrin, who disclosed at the weekend that Nigerian Police operatives were laying siege to his Abuja residence with a view to arresting him over budget padding revelations, has made a U-turn and is requesting police protection.Vanguard gathered last Thursday, following his removal as Chairman of the Appropriation Committee and his threat to reveal dealings involving alleged padding of the budget by principal officers of the House, the Police at Force headquarters invited him to depose to a statement about his allegations.After several invitations, including telephone conversations, Jibrin refused to answer the Police summons but instead relocated from his home to an unknown place to, according to him, avoid being arrested by the Police who allegedly laid siege to his house.______________________________________________________________Vanguard
N481bn Budget Padding: Heads to roll in NASS
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor & Johnbosco Agbakwuru***AIG heads FG team to probe masterminds ***
ABUJA — MORE trouble that may worsen the frosty relations between the executive and legislative arms of government appears to be looming as the Federal Government moves to punish the brains behind the insertion of illegal projects worth N481 billion by the National Assembly into the 2016 budget.Although President Muhammadu Buhari grudgingly and belatedly assented to this year's budget, the executive is settled that the fiscal document would not be fully implemented, given the 'padding' of the budget with a significant amount of money, which it claims had seriously distorted its permutations.
Vanguard learned from competent sources that the Presidency is still seething with anger over the distortion of the first budget presented by President Buhari by a cabal within the NASS and that it was determined to wield its sledgehammer against the masterminds.To unravel the culprits for appropriate punitive actions, the Presidency has directed Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to set in motion an impassioned team to probe how the N481 billion was added to the budget and who spearheaded the action.Acting on the President's directive, the Office of the AGF has tapped a senior police officer to carry out the probe of top National Assembly officials believed to have conspired among themselves to pad the budget and report back within a short time for necessary disciplinary action, including criminal prosecution.The top police officer, an Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, described as a no-nonsense police spy, is said to have silently swung into action by holding series of meetings with some officials of the National Assembly without divulging the motive of the interactions.Contacted last night, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, confirmed raising of the probe team, saying the Federal Government was determined to stamp out all corrupt tendencies in its budget process in order to achieve success.The AGF, who declined to give details of the probe team, said the aim of the investigation was to ensure that the masterminds were brought to book to serve as a deterrent to would-be corrupt officials in the country.Malami said the panel would determine the criminal roles played by those involved in the action and how much money was hidden away and the agencies of government involved in the budget scam.Issues to be determinedMajor issues to be determined by the probe include who got what and for what projects; how much the leaders and members of the Senate and House of Representatives pushed into their respective MDAs to be 'warehoused' for them and the agencies involved.Vanguard learned that the embattled former Chairman of the Finance and Appropriation Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr. Abdulmumuni Jibrin, might be summoned to brief the probe panel.It was further gathered that it was in a bid to extract vital documents and information from Jibrin and give him adequate protection from possible harm that some top police officers went to his home in Abuja and Kano, early last week, but did not find him.A top police source confirmed to Vanguard, last night, that the AIG-led probe team would work closely with Jibrin and other NASS officials to get to the root of the budget padding scandal in the interest of the nation.On the involvement of MDAs in the scam, the AGF promised to deal with the heads of the agencies found culpable.Malami said: "The Federal Government is interested in fishing out and punishing all those heads of parastatals who allowed themselves to be used by influential persons in the executive and legislative arms of government by importing non-existing projects into successive budgets and allegedly making away with large sums of money budgeted for them."You will recall that over time, there has been this criminal conspiracy among some levels of government resulting in budget padding by many of the parastatals and the money diverted and shared by some powerful individuals to the detriment of majority of Nigerians, who have been denied vital services."The present administration has taken note of the painful antics of a few powerful elements and we have decided to fish them out and punish them for others to see that corruption is not in the interest of anybody in Nigeria."Dogara diverted FG water project to his farm – JibrinMeanwhile, Jibrin has vowed to release, on a daily basis, alleged deals of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.Jibrin, who started releasing details of the alleged budget scam involving Dogara and three other principal officers, Lasun Yusuf, Alhassan Doguwa and Leo Ogor, last week, alleged, yesterday, that Dogara diverted a federal water project to his farm in Nasarawa State.Giving reasons he had to wait till now to speak out, he said: "Those who keep saying why now should realize that for every situation like this to occur, there must be a trigger, however, it looks!"I woke up mid night yesterday (Wednesday) to pray and suddenly realized I have become an accidental activist. This is noble and there is no going back!"I am a product of the establishment but something in me has never been comfortable. I'm so glad that by September 9, my 40th birthday, everybody would have known where I stand for the rest of my life; rural agriculture and fight against corruption, especially in the NASS."In his statement yesterday, Jibrin said he would continue to make daily allegation of abuse of office against Dogara and his "senior cabal" until the "law catches up with them".Jibrin, who raised 20 questions of corruption against Dogara on Wednesday, same day he dismissed the threat of court action from the speaker, hoped that Dogara and other principal officers will be removed, as a consequence of his allegations."When a new speaker emerges and the other principal officers are replaced, I will write to the presiding officers of both chambers to commence a radical internal reform in the entire NASS beyond budget to cover performance assessment, running cost and allowances, investigations, etc."If the reform so done in NASS is not made public latest by December, I shall take it up and lay before the general public even if I am alone. The idea is to do a clean up, flush out corruption and corrupt members so that in 2019 only corrupt-free people who want to serve will come in. God Almighty knows I am not perfect but as I approach 40 years in September, I have always wondered what is it that I can live and die for."External forces plotting Dogara's downfall – Gombe RepsContacted, Special Adviser to the Speaker on media and public affairs, Turaki Hassan, declined to react to the fresh allegations.However, the Gombe State caucus of the House of Representatives, yesterday, stated that the allegation of budget padding against Dogara and three other principal officers of the House was being fuelled by external forces.Addressing journalists in Abuja, spokesman of the caucus, Ali Isa said that lawmakers from the state were not part of what he described as evil group trying to cause disaffection and instability in the House.The group also accused Jibrin of embarking on "campaign of calumny" against the leadership of the House and the House in general.They said: "We of the Gombe State caucus of the House of Representatives wish to categorically and publicly declare that we are not part of any evil group trying to cause disaffection and instability in the House of Representatives, and we in like manner dissociate ourselves from any conspiracy and attack against Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the entire leadership of the House."We are aware that the current impasse is generated and orchestrated by Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin through his wild goose claim that the 2016 federal budget was "padded" by the Leadership of the House, and we are appalled and shocked that Hon. Jibrin only came out with this accusation just after the House has duly sacked him as Appropriation Committee Chairman over the offence of unlawfully inflating the budget in his own favour…"And talking about the budget itself, we want to say that in the real sense of the law, the National Assembly cannot be accused of padding the budget. Section 80 subsection 4 and section 81 subsection 1 of Nigeria's constitution have expressly given the National Assembly powers over the entire budgetary process, which also means the lawmaking body can make additions or subtractions on any budget document. It is, therefore, unfair and uncharitable for anyone to accuse the National Assembly of padding the budget."Jibrin pitches Muslim clerics against Buhari over Kano film villageSimilarly, it was gathered, yesterday, that President Buhari was angry over the insertion of the Kano film village in the budget, which has pitted him against Muslim clerics.The film village project, which is one of the revelations in the ongoing budget padding saga in the House and sited in Bebeji where Jibrin hails from, is said to be generating ripples between Kano clerics and President Buhari.___________________________________________________I am a born-again corruption fighter now, there's no going back – Jibrin
A former chairman of Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who has accused the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, of substantial fraud, has given reasons why he had to wait till now to speak out.Mr. Jibrin started releasing details of alleged budget fraud involving Mr. Dogara and three other principal officers, Lasun Yusuf, Alhassan Doguwa and Leo Ogor, last week.It came after he was removed as chairman of the appropriation committee."For those who keep saying why now, (they) should realize that for every situation like this to occur, there must be a trigger however it looks!" Mr. Jibrin said on Thursday."I woke up mid night yesterday to pray and suddenly realized I have become an accidental activist. This is noble and there is no going back!"I am a product of the establishment but something in me has never been comfortable. I'm so glad that by September 9th my 40th birthday everybody would have known where I stand for the rest of my life; rural agriculture and fight against corruption especially in the NASS," he said.In his statement on Thursday, he said he would continue to make daily allegation of fraud and abuse of office against Mr. Dogara and his "senior cabal" until "law catches up with them".He raised another allegation that Mr. Dogara diverted a federal water project to his farm in Nasarawa State.He raised 20 questions of corruption against the Speaker on Wednesday, same day he dismissed the threat of court action from the speaker.He expressed the hope that Mr. Dogara and other principal officers will be removed, as a consequence of his allegations."When a new Speaker emerges and the other principal officers replaced, I will write to the presiding officers of both chambers to commence a radical internal reform in the entire NASS beyond budget to cover performance assessment, running cost and allowances, investigations, etc."If the reform so done on NASS is not made public latest by December, I shall take it up and lay before the general public even if I am alone."The idea is to do a cleanup, flush out corruption and corrupt members so that in 2019 only corrupt free people who want to serve will come in "God Almighty knows I am not perfect but as I approach 40 years in September, I have always wondered what is it that I can live and die for."
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