The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said on Thursday, December 14, that the commission was still waiting for cash backing for the N18 billion approved as supplementary budget for the commission by the National Assembly before the last off cycle elections in the country.
Prof Yakubu who spoke while defending the commission’s 2024 budget proposal before the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, also said that the N40 billion appropriated for the Commission for 2024 can only cover its personnel and social contributions.
The INEC chairman alluded to the fact that with the current envelope given to them in the 2024 budget, it will be difficult to conduct electoral activities in 2024.
Governorship elections are expected to be conducted in Ondo and Edo states in 2024.
He said with a personnel cost of about N35 billion, the budget did not make adequate provision for capital, overhead and electoral matters in the 2024 budget.
While insisting that the N40 billion allocation to the commission was grossly inadequate, Prof Yakubu said INEC would require about N89 billion for its operations in 2024.
He recalled that the sum of N50 billion was appropriated for INEC in the 2023 appropriation as its statutory budget and an additional N18 billion was approved for the Commission in the Supplementary Budget, bringing it to a total sum of N68 billion budgeted for INEC in 2023.
He said: “We need N89 billion rather than N40 billion. We have given a detailed breakdown of how we intend to spend the N89 billion. Personnel cost rises from N26.5 billion in 2023 to N44.5 billion in 2024, overhead cost N7.9 billion, electoral expenditure N9.7 billion and a capital expenditure N909 Million.
‘The N40 billion given to us under the envelope budget is grossly inadequate to meet our expenditure requirement for 2024. You may recall that the Federal Government introduced the 40 percent peculiar allowance in March 2023 and all Agencies that are on the Consolidated Public Salary Structure were required to pay the consolidated salaries.”
“The circular came after the budget was appropriated in December 2022. So, no provision was made in the budget at all. To pay the peculiar allowance to over 15 thousand staff of the Commission we needed N10.6 billion that was not provided for.
“At the same time Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) was revised by a minimum of 100 percent across the board. Again, we could not implement it. Then after the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, the N35 Thousand wage award by the Federal Government for 6 months from September 2023 to February 2024 was announced and there was no provision in our budget for the implementation of these categories of allowances.
“So, we made a case to the Executive, and they made a provision for N18 billion for INEC under the Supplementary budget to enable us meet these obligations.
“Practically speaking, the budget for the Commission for 2023 is N68 billion; the N50 billion plus the N18 billion under the supplementary budget. But I must also say that we are waiting for cash backing for the N18 billion under the supplementary budget. We hope that very soon we will get the cash backing,
“We are surprised that the 2024 budget dropped from N68 billion to N40 billion because that was what was appropriated to the Commission in 2021. So the amount is simply insufficient to even meet personnel costs because of the new policy on additional allowances for officials.
“The N40 billion can only cover personnel costs and social contributions. Our personnel cost in 2023 was N21.8 billion but because of the 40 percent peculiar allowance, the new DTA, the 35 percent wage award, and others, our wage bill now is N36.5 billion. If you take it out of the N40 billion, there is virtually nothing left in the budget for Capital, Electoral, and Overhead Expenditures.“
The chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu emphasized the need for N89 billion as the proposal that will make the Commission comfortable for the conduct of elections and electoral activities in 2024, saying “his budget covers all INEC offices nationwide and all INEC activities.”
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyer