Federal lawmakers allegedly stole N500 billion from N1.27 trillion allocated to the National Assembly (NASS) in 10 years, former House of Chairman Committeeon Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin has said.
According to him, N500b was moved into private pockets in the name of Running cost, which was not part of the monthly salary of the lawmakers.
Jibrin, who was on suspension said the alleged fraud perpetuated by the lawmakers was made possible because NASS allocation is a first line charge in the budget, which makes it a priority and mandatory payment from the Federation Account.
In a statement yesterday, Jibrin, who was the former House Committee on Finance in the 7th Assembly regretted that the utilization of the allocation which is the internal budget of the House remained the most opaque compared tompther democracies around the world.
He gave the breakdown of the allocation is as follows 2006- N49.3; 2007- N59.80; 2008-N112.56b; 2009-N106.64b; 2010-N127. 78b; 2011-N150b; N2012-N150b; 2013-N150b; 2014-N150b; 2015 -N120b; and 2016-N115b.
He said: “When the allocation is received, the running cost of members which comes up to almost half the allocation is deducted.
“No member has a copy of the internal budget of the House which shows how the balance is spent.
“It is important to note that the running cost excludes salaries of legislative aides many of whom are ghost staff and other expenditures.
“The balance which is more than sufficient but for corruption is what is expected to be used to run the activities of the NASS”.
The lawmaker however explained how the alleged theft of N500b was not felt on the execution of the budget of the National Assembly, saying, “When the allocation is received, the running cost of members which comes up to almost half the allocation is deducted.
“No member has a copy of the internal budget of the House which shows how the balance is spent
“It is important to note that the running cost excludes salaries of legislative aides many of whom are ghost staff and other expenditures.
“The balance which is more than sufficient but for corruption is what is expected to be used to run the activities of the NASS but severally the House still inserts some of its expenditure in the FGN budget especially capital supplementation under service wide vote.
“There exist massive corruption in the management of this balance through award of fraudulent contracts.