The newly-constituted Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission is expected to deliberate on the controversial jumbo salaries and allowances of political office holders, especially those in the National Assembly, at its maiden meeting in Abuja on Monday(today).
Also slated for discussion at the meeting is the contentious concession granted to Bayelsa State to enjoy special derivation funds and a new revenue formula.
The RMAFC is constitutionally empowered to determine the remuneration of public officers as well as revenue allocation to all tiers of government.
The tenure of the new commission, which is chaired by Mr. Elias Mbam, commenced on December 1, 2010 after its members were screened by the Senate on November 22, 2010.
An online news portal, the Economic Confidential, which reported the scheduled meeting on Sunday, did not elaborate on the jumbo pay of the National Assembly members. Rather, it did so on the special concession which it said that Bayelsa State had so far enjoyed for two months.
A member of the RMAFC, who spoke with THE PUNCH on Sunday, confirmed the meeting.
The member, who pleaded not to be named because he was not permitted to speak on the issues, hinted that the jumbo pay of the federal lawmakers might be reviewed downward.
He said the remuneration for the lawmakers was ‘too much,’ adding that what the commission under the leadership of Alhaji Hamman Tukur approved was different from what the legislators okayed for themselves.
He said, “The commission will like to look at the template used in fixing the packages enjoyed by our lawmakers. It is conscious of the public agitation against the packages and will, therefore, ensure that whatever review it carries out will match the reality of the ground.
“The remuneration is too much for the legislators. What the revenue commission approved is different from what the body (National Assembly members) approved for themselves.
“Since we are empowered to determine the salary of political office holders, the eyes of Nigerians are on us to come up with something that is realistic.”
The jumbo pay of lawmakers has been a subject of public discussion since Nigerians were made to realise the disturbing affluence their representatives were living in.
As expected, the public has remained consistent in its criticism of the salary of legislators, describing it as outrageous.
As things stand now, a senator in Nigeria earns N15. 18m monthly salary and a total of N182m annually. A lawmaker in the lower chamber also gets N10.59 every month and a total of N127m annually.
Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN) initially drew public attention to the absurdity in August at the celebration of the 47th birthday of the Lagos State Commissioner of Information, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, when he declared that Nigeria lawmakers were the highest paid in the world.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, raised the ante in November at the convocation ceremony of Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State.
He said 25 per cent of the overhead of the nation’s budget goes to NASS.
The sign that the government was beginning to bow to pressure being mounted by Nigerians came on Thursday at the presentation of the 2011 budget to the National Assembly.
The budget showed that the total allocation to the National Assembly had been slashed by 45bn. The lawmakers will get N111. 23bn in 2011 as against N156bn they collected in 2010.
At the presentation, the Senate President, David Mark, said that NASS would champion the cut in the recurrent expenditure of different arms of government.
Economic Confidential had also reported that the Presidency was concerned that President Goodluck Jonathan might have been misled into approving the special derivation funds for Bayelsa State.
With the concession, the state earns derivation funds from oil wells lying beyond the 200-metre isobaths, an action that is said to breach the Offshore/Onshore Dichotomy Abrogation Act 2004 in the application of the 13 per cent derivation principle.
The approval makes the state the leading oil producer and highest recipient of derivation funds among the oil producing states.
During the meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee in November 2010, the state received N10.37bn as derivation. It was followed by Rivers N8.6bn, Akwa Ibom N8.3bn and Delta N7.2bn.
Other recipients from derivation funds include Ondo N1.3bn; Abia, N4.43bn; Imo, N412m; Edo, N300m and Cross River, N287m.
Economic Confidential claimed that the recommendation to the President for the special concession was engineered by some agencies of government, including the National Boundary Commission, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the RMAFC after Tukur’s exit.
But our source in the RMAFC said on Sunday that the concession was ‘illegal,’ based on the isobaths.
He added that it (recommendation to the President) was made before the 37-member commission had a full house.
He said, “We only had some few members of the commission then . When the President was approving the concession , there were some members of the commission whose tenure had expired.
“The decision was done when there was no new revenue commission on the ground. Basically, these were the arguments.”
The source argued that the special concession had been “creating confusion, especially among the oil-producing states that Bayelsa State that was the fourth on the list of highest earners is now the first.
“Some people are even saying that the President is just favouring his state but from all indications, he must have been misled by the commission (RMAFC) after the exit of the former chairman,” he said.
The source assured that the issue would be looked into during the commission’s meeting in Abuja today.
He also disclosed that the commission was expected to approve the new revenue allocation formula for the federation.
According to him, the one presently in use was initiated by a former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
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