Okonjo-Iweala Accuses Lawmakers of Collecting N17billion Bribe To Pass
\n2015 Budget<\/p>\n
Former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has revealed the blackmail and
\narm twisting that characterised budget passing by the National Assembly
\nduring the Goodluck Jonathan Administration.<\/p>\n
She cited an instance in 2015 when the National Assembly leadership forced
\nthe executive arm to part with N17 billion for the federal lawmakers to
\npass that year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
That, she said, was at a time crude price had gone down drastically.
\nThe N17 billion alleged bribe, according to Okonjo-Iweala in her book
\nFighting Corruption is Dangerous:The Story Behind the Headlines, was
\nbesides the NASS N150 billion annual \u2018standard\u2019 budget.<\/p>\n
She described federal legislators as a tough political group to deal with.
\nHer words: \u201cThe legislature was concerned largely about three things\u2014the
\nsize of its own budget; the nature and the size of the capital budget,
\nparticularly investment projects; and the number and geographical location
\nof the projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenators and Representatives felt that their role as appropriators of the
\nbudget was not just to vet and approve budget parameters and oversee
\nbudget implementation, but also to shape the size and content of the
\nbudgets, including details of specific projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said members of the NASS Finance and Appropriation even felt \u201dthey had
\nthe right\u2013indeed the duty\u2013to get into the details of the budget
\nformulation and preparation process all along the budget value chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ex-minister said the NASS leadership, working through the various
\ncommittees, \u201csought to add more to individual projects or create
\ncompletely new, unappropriated major projects, thereby distorting the
\nbudget.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she explained that \u201cnot all National Assembly members supported these
\nunfortunate manipulations of the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cNational Assembly members had negotiated large increases in
\nthe National Assembly budgets and would brook no discussions or challenges
\non the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir operational budget had ballooned to N150 billion or 16 per cent of
\nthe budget and almost 3.5 times the 2006 budget (in naira).\u201d
\nOkonjo-Iweala said when it was proposed that the lawmakers should give up
\nsome of their benefits in view of dwindling revenue in 2015, they bluntly
\nrefused to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time we presented the budget on December 16, 2014, oil prices had
\nfallen further to $58 per barrel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were prepared and we knew we had to trigger the additional expenditure
\nand revenue measures in 2015 to make the budget work.
\n\u201cThis would be tough, given that we had entered an election year,\u201d she said.
\n\u201dIndeed, legislators initially refused to accept any cuts to their
\nregular N150 billion budget, despite dwindling revenues.
\n\u201cBut eventually, they agreed to a 13 per cent cut against a backdrop of
\nministers accepting a voluntary 50 per cent cut to their basic salaries.
\n\u201cIn a tough session with the National Assembly\u2019s ad hoc committee on the
\nbudget (made up of chairs of the Finance Committee and Appropriation
\nCommittee of both chambers and other leaders of the National Assembly), an
\nadditional N20 billion was re-introduced as election expenses for National
\nAssembly members.
\n\u201cWe insisted the amount be dropped because it nullified the 13 per cent
\ncut made to their statutory budget, but managed to reduce the N20 billion
\nfigure by only N3 billion to N17 billion.
\n\u201cThis became the price to pay to have the 2015 budget passed.\u201d
\nOkonjo-Iweala was Jonathan\u2019s finance minister from August 17, 2011 to May
\n29, 2015.
\nShe had served in the same capacity in the Obasanjo government.
\nThe Federal Government proposed to spend N4.454 trillion that year.<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala Accuses Lawmakers of Collecting N17billion Bribe To Pass 2015 Budget Former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has revealed the blackmail and arm twisting that characterised budget passing by the National…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n