Non-Remittance Hassles

Governor Danjuma Goje

Alleged huge unspent money by the different Committees of the Gombe State House of Assembly put members on the edge
By Levinus Nwabughiogu, Gombe
If the present regime of president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is serious with its fight against ‘official’ corruption and similar tendencies in high places of government, then much attention is needed to be drawn towards investigating the many alleged improper financial ties that may soon cause an open face-off in the Gombe State House of Assembly.
In the same vein, the administration of Governor Mohammed  Danjuma Goje, observers say, must summon enough political courage to be able to scrutinise  the several huge funds appropriated to the House under the aegis of Constituency,  Office and Committee allowances that seem misappropriated or allegedly embezzled outrightly.
Though not fully blown to public knowledge, The Source can authoritatively report that the bubble will soon burst in the Assembly as aggrieved parties in the loot appear to have concluded plans to take the leadership of the House to the cleaners. At the moment, it does appears as though the lawmakers have sacrificed their constitutional responsibility of law enactment on the altar of personal aggrandisements.
Findings by The Source indicates that tongues are already wagging as to why some projects, like the installation of the ICT/Internet facilities at the Assembly which were reportedly paid for by the State Government, have not been properly installed several months after. The project which is said to be handled by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Alhaji Inwa Garba, suffers serious neglect. Indeed, to make the governor believe the contrary, the House last October, during a courtesy visit to the governor told Goje that all is well with the ICT system. Then came the second week of last December, during the North east Senate Sub Committee Review of the 1999 Constitution parely held in Gombe, the state capital, that the House quickened its steps and allegedly ploughed back part of the funds earmarked for the exercise, to run a skeletal service of the facility. Even at that, sources said the system is yet to come on full stream.
Away from that, The Source gathered that the parliamentarians seem set or have already been basking on the spoils of their offices which come from the monthly allowances for the House Committees’ oversight functions.
The Source learnt that this allowance of N250.000 appropriated to each Committee for different oversights is hardly spent by the Committees. But the monies which are remittable to the public coffers thereafter hardly also find their way back to the coffers. Instead, The Source was told, fictitious expenditure ledgers and phantom receipts are allegedly drawn to cover the untraceable expenditure made in the course of the supposed oversight obligations. This, The Source gathered, is achieved through the help of the various secretaries of the Committees who are supposed to be staffers of the Assembly. Stipends are said to be routinely handed out to these accomplices and the rest of the money finds route to the private pockets of the Chairmen, who sources say, hardly make any remittance back to the government purse as per unused financial resources.
The Source had early last month outlined an exclusive expose on the quality representation and legislative standard of the Assembly. While nine members, including the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Manga Musa Bojude, are said to be academically fit, having acquired first and second degrees respectively, others including the Deputy Speaker, are said to be trailing behind O,’Level and National Diploma as their highest academic qualification. It was gathered, for instance, that the Deputy Speaker, miffed by the report, was to place a rebuttal but was stopped on account of dominant opinion around him that doing so may mean crying wolf over issues he may not substantiate.
This educational laxity, coupled with the seemingly parochial attitude of some of the members who sometimes doze off during plenary sessions, may have prompted the state government‘s sub- Constitutional Review Committee to recommend in its submission to the Senate Committee last week that it should be enshrined in the proposed new Statue Book that only those with B.SC/HND be accorded the right to stand election into the Houses of Assembly.
According to the sampled views of many indigenes of the state, it is rather suspicious that the 24-member parliament has all the members as chairmen of different Committees. Sources alleged that the arrangement was to allow each member fend for him or herself through undue means. The implication of this however, is that their membership criss-crosses between the committees and this often impairs internal democracy and due process, as it often creates room for the members to line their pockets without checkmating one another.
Sources say while they all receive allowances to run non-exising constituency offices, the N250,000 earmarked for Committees’ oversights expenditure comes to them regularly each month. The monthly allowances, sources say, have almost been embellished in their salaries as no one talks about it.
But The Source can reveal that even though stipends are given to their aides in whose custody the monies should be kept and accounted for when the need arises – as it is now – the 2009 fiscal year has ended for most governments and so there is the likelihood that the bubble may soon burst. This is consequent upon the many signs of unsatisfaction been subtly expressed by some persons who fear the risk of been probed someday.
But while it is feared that the State government might soon take the House by surprise by instituting an Investigation Panel, unconfirmed sources, however, said that the anti-corruption agent, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), many soon swing to action to unearth the hidden facts behind the unutilised allowances. Efforts to reach the EFCC for comments, as to the true position, however proved abortive.
Meanwhile, the House in the last week of the year received the Virement Bill, just as it also expected to receive the 2010 Budget Presentation from Governor Goje on Wednesday, December 29, 2009.