The Senate on Wednesday suspended consideration of the report of its
Finance committee following disagreements among members over the pay
cut recommended by the panel. It was gathered that during a 2
hour deliberation behind closed doors the senators resolved to reject
the reduction of salaries and allowances as recommended by the Senator
James Manager’s committee.
The senators said it was not
possible to accept pay cut with other beneficiaries of the N120bn
National
Assembly annual budget not doing same. He said his colleagues
also resolved to reject the report because the recommendations
Some other senators on condition of anonymity said further
consideration of the finance committee report was stepped down because
many of their colleagues rejected the contents of the report.
Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South), said senators told themselves
the truth at the session on the need to be very cautious on accepting
reduction of salaries and allowances.
Urhoghide said that majority
of the senators agreed that “funny allowances” like the monthly N42,000
wardrobe allowance should be cut off completely.
He said
“Yes, as recommended by the committee, all senators agreed that there
must be openness in Senate budget and by extension, that of the National
Assembly.
“At the same time, many reasoned that why should
we further reduce our budget when already, N30bn has been reduced from
the traditional 150bn that it used to be for all the seven different
organs of the National Assembly.
“All of us have people in
our constituencies and financial requests from them keep piling up on a
daily basis, the reality of which made steps to be redirected,
otherwise, some of us may stop coming here.”
The committee, also recommended the publication of all the payments accruable to each senator on a quarterly basis.However, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at plenary, explained that “Senate in closed session deliberated on the report of the finance committee but agreed to stand it down for further legislative input.”
Addressing journalists after plenary, Senate spokesperson, Senator Dino Melaye, said further action on the report was put on hold because the senate budget was an integral part of the National Assembly budget being jointly shared by seven bodies.