Dogara Challenge: El-Rufai publishes security votes, LG funds, pay slip, dares NASS to do same

House’s reaction notwithstanding, a respondent said, Dogara and Saraki should have been the first to make public their National Assembly budgets being that Governor el-Rufai was the first to challenge them to do so.  “But instead of them to just go ahead and publish the details of their budgets in the National Assembly, they spoke through Dogara to hit back at the Kaduna governor to make public his security votes and Local Government funds details thinking that all politicians are like them.  Now that el-Rufai, who should be the last man doing the transparency and accountability thing, has taken the lead, they are just, and I say just, promising that they will publish the details of their budgets which they have been so unwilling to do despite requests by Nigerians.”

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Monday took the challenge posed to him by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to make public what he gets as security vote and Local Government funds.  The Governor released details of what he spends on security votes as well as what he earns as governor.

El-Rufai and Dogara had at the closing session of a retreat for National Assembly members in Kaduna, exchanged words with El-Rufai challenging the National Assembly to make its budget public while Dogara challenged the  governor  to make public what he was getting as security vote and as allocations to local governments.

El-Rufai said in a statement released on Monday by his media aide, Samuel Aruwan, that the budgets of all state governments in Nigeria were detailed out and were usually presented under the headings of personnel costs, overhead, and capital expenditure unlike the budget of the National Assembly which he said was a single line item of over N100 billion that divulged zero information or details.

“On our part, the Kaduna State government has consistently made public all its budget details. In 2016, in an unprecedented step, the state published not only its own budget, but also that of all the 23 local government councils online on the www. <http://www.openkaduna.com.ng/>open <http://www.openkaduna.com.ng/>kaduna.com.ng <http://www.openkaduna.com.ng/> website. The local government budgets provide details of the recurrent and capital spending of every single LG in a transparent manner. The proposed 2017 LG budgets, currently before the state Assembly, are also already online on the same website, and on www.kdsg.gov.ng <http://www.kdsg.gov.ng/>. Approved state budgets 2016-2017 can be found on <http://openkaduna.com.ng/Budget/approved-budget>.  We invite the Right Honourable Speaker to download and peruse at his pleasure,” the statement said.

The governor said as regards Security Votes, the details of spending priorities as contained in the Kaduna Comprehensive Security Architecture (KADCoSA) showed  the state was directing security spending on justice, technology, community engagement and support to security agencies.

He said in 2017, N1.5bn  had been budgeted for  the procurement & installation of CCTV cameras for monitoring and surveillance towards reducing criminal activities within the metropolis while. N193m was for procurement of geo-position interceptor and location of GSM UMTS system to check the trends and intercept locate kidnappers’ GSM calls.

He said N265m had been budgeted for the procurement of drones/Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to identify locations of armed bandits in forest reserves across the state and the establishment of a forensic laboratory to assist in determining substantial evidence in cases that otherwise proved difficult in the past, while N2.6bn  had been  allocated in 2017 to support the network of federal security agencies in Kaduna with communication, logistics and materials.

He said the 2015 accounts of the Kaduna State Government had been audited, and the audit summary published in major newspapers and on the state website on 21st June 2016. “The Accountant-General’s report for 2016 has been finalized and its audit is ongoing and will be published as usual and the audited state government accounts could also be found on our website,” he said.

El-rufai also released details of what he earns as governor, revealing that his gross monthly salary stood at N555,926.74, while the net stood at N470,521.74.  He said this  reflected what the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission approved as the salary and allowances of every state governor.

The governor then reiterated  his call for the National Assembly  leadership to publish  the details of the National Assembly budget, and the salaries and allowances of its leadership.

Reacting to El-Rufai’s statement, the House of Representatives said yesterday that it would publish the details of its budget as soon as the 2017 budget was passed into law.

Spokesman of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa) said Speaker Yakubu Dogara had already directed the management of the House to do that.

Namdas also said that El-Rufai left out some of the issues Dogara raised when he challenged the Kaduna State governor to champion the cause of transparency in the budgetary process of all arms of government, including the handling of local government funds by state governors.

“The speaker was very clear when he raised those fundamental issues. He also talked about the security votes of local government councils; how are the governors spending funds? That has not been addressed. But, what is important is that the National Assembly bureaucracy has already been directed to publish the details of the budget. Dogara gave this directive right in the presence of el-Rufai. The budget will soon be passed,” Namdas said.

House’s reaction notwithstanding, a respondent said, Dogara and Saraki should have been the first to make public their National Assembly budgets being that Governor el-Rufai was the first to challenge them to do so.  “But instead of them to just go ahead and publish the details of their budgets in the National Assembly, they spoke through Dogara to hit back at the Kaduna governor to make public his security votes and Local Government funds details thinking that all politicians are like them.  Now that el-Rufai, who should be the last man doing the transparency and accountability thing, has taken the lead, they are just, and I say just, promising that they will publish the details of their budgets which they have been so unwilling to do despite requests by Nigerians.”