March 07, (THEWILL) – Policy Alert, a Civil Society Organisation, is calling on the lawmakers in Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, to subject the N45 billion supplementary bill to public scrutiny, describing as suspicious the processing of the Bill by the House.
The call is coming after Governor Udom Emmanuel made a fresh request for a N45 billion supplementary budget, less than one week after a public outcry may have stalled the Assembly from approving a N150 billion loan for the Governor.
The supplementary bill, made up of N41 billion for Recurrent Expenditure and N4 billion for Capital Expenditure is coming just two months into the 2022 fiscal year and was received via a letter during plenary last Thursday.
But the organisation, which is promoting economic and ecological justice in the Niger Delta in a statement frowned at the haste to pass the bill and without the Assembly not subjecting it to public scrutiny.
The statement, signed by its Programme Officer, Fiscal Reforms and Anti-Corruption, Faith Paulinus,
also frowned at the non disclosure of items in the recurrent expenditure which make up more than 90% of the supplementary bill.
“The haste by the legislators to get this done makes the entire process highly suspicious. By asking the House Committee on Appropriation and Finance to report back to the House within 24 hours after the second reading, the leadership of the Assembly has indicated that it may not be interested in taking citizens’ inputs into account in the consideration of the controversial supplementary budget.
“We urge the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to allow sufficient time for thorough legislative scrutiny of this controversial supplementary appropriation bill and to subject the proposal to a public hearing in line with the traditional procedure of the legislature on bills and the principle of fiscal transparency and accountability.
“It would be an injustice and a slap on the collective intelligence of Akwa Ibom people to allow this supplementary budget to pass without giving citizens an opportunity to weigh the proposals against their actual priorities.
“We call on the legislature to resist the temptation of being rushed to accept the supplementary proposals hook, line and sinker. They must learn to feel the pulse of the citizens and prioritise the overriding public interest over partisan loyalties and electoral concerns. They should prudently examine the provisions line by line against extant fiscal data.” It said.
House Leader, Udo Akpan, had said the Bill would increase the budget size of the state that was passed last year from N586 billion to N631 billion, an increase of N45 billion from when it was approved last year.
The supplementary budget, Akpan further explained would seek to “complete some projects in the state and it is the determination of the State Governor to see that these projects are commissioned within his administration.”
The Bill was read the second time and referred to the House Committee on Appropriation and Finance to report back to the House within 24 hours, but is expected to interface with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies for further contributions on the Bill and legislative procedure before passage.
It was reported earlier that recent moves to obtain a loan was a decoy to use the yet to be paid 13% arrears as a collateral, while the loan was meant to fund elections for the Governor’s preffered candidate.
“It could be recalled that in a string of Federal High Court judgments in 2021, the Federal Government had been ordered to pay $2.258 billion to Akwa Ibom State, $1.638 billion to Delta State, $1.114 billion to Rivers State, and $951m to Bayelsa State, as share of recalculated oil derivation revenue in line with Section 16(1) of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Act
“The Act obligates the federal government to adjust the share of the Federation in the additional revenue if the price of crude oil at any time it exceeds $20 per barrel. Akwa Ibom State’s share of $2.258 billion is N926.9 billion at the 2021 third quarter exchange rate of N410.5/$US. From the exceptional income expected, Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration had deeper and surprising plans.
“Instead of waiting like other three States of the Niger Delta which the judgement covered, Governor Udom Emmanuel, devised a means to tap into the expected billions of naira even without receiving payments directly from the federal government. That strategy was to use the judgment as a guarantee to obtain secret loans from commercial banks. Our sources revealed that the loan deal was struck with First Bank PLC.
“However, the information on the bank the State struck the deal with was not independently verified by this reporter. Yet, one of our sources mentioned that the Governor is using the strategy so that his administration can enjoy part of the refunds since he envisages that the tranches of payments of the refunds may not come in the life of his administration.
“The report also gave other reasons for the loan.
The reason for this loan, our sources, who are privy to the plans confided, is to be used to run the 2023 elections and also enable the governor to have an upper hand in payment of delegates to ensure his succession plan flies
“Interestingly, this is not the first time the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel would be acquiring loans secretly and under the mask of 13 percent derivation refund. This action which has gradually become a dark trend in the State dates back to July 2021.
“It also indicted members of the state Assembly after they amended the standing order of the house to enable them deliberate and process a loan request from the governor secretly.
“The standing order before the December 2020 amendment under Order 2 rule 2 (1) of the House tagged as ” Message from Governor” notes ” The Speaker shall immediately after prayer or as soon as any member has taken the Oath of Allegiance read to the House any message addressed to the House by the Governor.
“However, in the amended version which created sub-rule (4) the standing order reads that a message from the Governor can be deliberated during executive session if the House of Assembly deems fit. ” A message from the Governor can be deliberated at the executive session if the members deem it fit and proper to be so considered in exceptional circumstances.
“It was gathered that select member of the leadership of the House of Assembly in a meeting recently with the Governor consented that they would authorise the loan secretly, so far their political interest in the 2023 election is protected and they also get a bite of the dark loan. Yet, it was agreed that this particular loan approval would not be discussed on the floor of the house else it would spark public outcry.” The report said.
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