USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [africanworldforum] Re: A question for the lawyers: The criminally padded budget

My Fellow Nigerians:

Prof. Wole Soyinka once stated that we Nigerians have such an inventiveness that we sometimes do "normal criminality" in such an inventive way that it takes a particularly Nigerian dimension, and then it gets a SPECIFIC name - such as "4-1-9" (which is a particularly venal form of the normal "crime" of confidence trickery) and "padding" (which is a particularly venal form of the normal "crime" of pork-barrel legislating).

It is the particularly Nigerian form of criminality that is confusing people like Joe Attueyi and Obi Nwakanma, that they are raising questions below.

Let me give an example of a situation that will make this "padding" issue hopefully a little bit clearer.  Suppose eight of us have a Government Council meeting, in which we have thoroughly discussed and agreed on certain projects brought before it by Management (which recommends Project A N1 million, and Project B N2.5 million)..  Before we leave that meeting, we ask the Secretary of the meeting to read back the minutes and all the resolutions, and we all agree that those are what we discussed, that should be transmitted to the Management for its consent and execution.  The agreement is to decrease the total amount for Projects by N1.5 million, but remove one project but add two more projects, such that Project B is N500,000, Project C is N500,000, Project D is N1 million.  For all we know, Projects C and D may be "pork barrel", but at least the whole Governing Council agreed to it.

Now, however, between the time the minutes/resolutions were signed and transmitted to Management, the Chairman of the Governing Council, the Treasurer and the Secretary meet behind and COLLUDE to re-write certain entries in the minutes - keeping the number of pages of the minutes and total budget sum intact, but FURTHER increasing the number of projects by two, such that we now have for Project B N300,000,  Project C N200,000, Project D N300,000, Project E N500,000 and Project F N500,000 WITHOUT the knowledge of ANY OTHER person in the Governing Council knowing that those have been changed.

This  "padded" budget is now passed back to an UNSUSPECTING Management who thinks that all the projects under signature were agreed by the whole Governing Council.  But there is a twist:  the Chairman and Secretary ask that the Management sign/approve the new resolutions but does not really give the details.  That is what raises the suspicion of the Management, but fearing too much delay, AFTER further discussion with the leadership of the Governing Council (with some further minor adjustments) only, it signs on.

It is only after the Management signs of on what it thought was the agreed resolutions that OTHER members of the Governing Council, now seeing the signed document, complains that it was NOT aware of the Projects E and F, and that the figures that they agreed for Projects B, C and D were not correct - and Katakata starts, with the Treasurer confessing that "Yes, we changed the figures...Sorry....I intend to be honest for the rest of my life."

So what the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary of the Governing Council did was OUTRIGHT Forgery, euphemistically called "Padding", and is OUTSIDE the legislative process, and is CRIMINAL.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

On Sat, Aug 6, 2016 at 2:43 PM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:

The question that is bothering me, dear WS is the meaning of "padding." I've been unable to understand it. Because (a) budgeting is process under legislation that can change according to the rules of legislation, and (b) as the pursekeepers of the nation, the Legislature determines in the end what and where any government should, and can spend money. Sometimes, therefore, what comes originally to the Legislature for debate under the Financial or budget Act, is not always what leaves the chambers. Sometimes approved expenditure changes. "Padding" does happen in the US Congress. It is called "Pork." This is when powerful legislators and committee chairs push a little more money towards their own constituency interests, through negotiation with the president's office in the Ways and Means Committee. It is often give and take: you support a pet project in my constituency or in the lobby that I support by adding a little more money to a particular budget item, and naming it, and I support same for you. This is what happens in the legislature everywhere in the world. If this was the "padding" that took place, I should really, honestly say, it is all in line with the legislative process. But if the "padding" or the additions took place after the fact: that is after the budget line items have been passed by the legislators, through the committee process, and through the entire HOR, and someone then doctors the passed budget by padding items that were not passed by parliament, that constitutes a criminal violation of the rules of the National Assembly, and such members must be investigated by the Ethics committee and sanctioned under the ethics rule, and depending on the stance of the legislature, passed on to the police for criminal prosecution. But the simple truth is, if the line items were padded unto the original budget during the budget debate, and passed, there is no law broken. The President's budget is a mere proposal, until it becomes actionable through the budget process. And it may change radically through that process. These are the conditions we paid for when we established a democracy and a National Assembly. Many of us still have this hang-up on the military era process that limited the nature of the legislative process. Padding does happen, and that is true of any legislature.

Obi Nwakanma

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From: 'Wharfery Snake' via NaijaEvent <naijaevent@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 6, 2016 1:21 PM
To: Joe Attueyi
Cc: NaijaEvent@googlegroups.com; Politics Naija; African GM; Okonkwonetworks; Yahoo! Inc.; Yahoo! Inc.; Ra'ayi Riga; Yahoo! Inc.; Yahoo! Inc.; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com; Yahoo! Inc.; Abba; olakassimmd@aol.com; Agbor Ike; rotfash@yahoo.com; nebukadineze@aol.com; FORUM IGBO WORLD FORUM IGBO WORLD; vincentotuonye@msn.com; therealsegun
Subject: Re: A question for the lawyers: The criminally padded budget

 

Pastor Joe,

There is a way I look at all the shenanigans in Nigeria. I would ask myself if such padding had happened in Washington, D.C.; would the culprits be arrested and tried? The answer is always 'Yes' .

WS - A revered prince of Mushin.

Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 6, 2016, at 9:12 AM, Joe Attueyi <topcrestt@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> A question has been bugging me that you may be able to answer : was the criminally padded budget the same that was signed by PMB? If yes, does PMB signing the budget convert the crime into law since the Appropriations Act 2016 is now law of the land? If the crime is now legal shouldn't PMB be answering some questions about whether the criminally padded budget was signed off by him negligently or through criminal connivance?
>
> Here is a picture shared back then of Mr President, his VP and minister of budget reviewing the budget before Mr President signed off
>
> <image1.png>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone

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