INEC Rejects N40bn Allocation

INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu

The N40 billion budget was rejected by INEC because it was deemed to be woefully insufficient for its operational requirements

The Senate Committee on INEC was given a draft proposal of N89 billion by INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu during a budget defense meeting. He explained that the N40 billion would only cover personnel costs, leaving little for capital, electoral, and overhead expenses.

With more than 15,000 employees, he claimed that N40 billion would only be able to pay for the commission's personal expenses.

The N40 billion allotted for the commission in 2024, according to Professor Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, was egregiously insufficient.

On Thursday, December 14, Yakubu made this statement in an interactive meeting with the Senate Committee on INEC. Senator Sarafadeen Ali serves as the committee's chair.

The INEC director stated that the N40 billion could only cover the salaries of the commission's staff and social contributions.

Yakubu insisted that the 2024 budget did not adequately account for capital, overhead, and electoral matters, given that the cost of personnel was approximately N35 billion.

In the same breath as he disclosed that the N18 billion commission was allotted in the 2023 Supplementary Budget has no funding source, he declared that INEC would require N89 billion to run its operations in 2024.

He said: “We need N89 billion rather than N40 billion. We have given a detailed breakdown of how we intend to spend the N89 billion. Personnel cost rises from N26.5 billion in 2023 to N44.5 billion in 2024, overhead cost N7.9 billion, electoral expenditure N9.7 billion and a capital expenditure N909 Million.

“The N40 billion given to us under the envelope budget is grossly inadequate to meet our expenditure requirement for 2024. You may recall that the Federal Government introduced the 40 percent peculiar allowance in March 2023 and all Agencies that are on the Consolidated Public Salary Structure were required to pay the consolidated salaries,

“The circular came after the budget was appropriated in December, 2022. So, no provision was made in the budget at all. To pay the peculiar allowance to over 15 thousand staff of the Commission, we needed N10.6 billion that was not provided for.

“At the same time, Duty Tour Allowance, DTA, was revised by a minimum of 100 percent across the board. Again, we could not implement it. Then, after the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, the N35 thousand wage award by the Federal Government for 6 months from September 2023 to February 2024 was announced and there was no provision in our budget for the implementation of these categories of allowances.

“So, we made a case to the Executive, and they made a provision for N18 billion for INEC under the Supplementary budget to enable us meet these obligations.

“Practically speaking, the budget for the Commission for 2023 is N68 billion; the N50 billion plus the N18 billion under the supplementary budget. But I must also say that we are waiting for cash bac for the N18 billion under the Government for 6 months from September 2023 to February 2024 was announced and there was no provision in our budget for the implementation of these categories of allowances.

“So, we made a case to the Executive, and they made a provision for N18 billion for INEC under the Supplementary budget to enable us meet these obligations.

“Practically speaking, the budget for the Commission for 2023 is N68 billion; the N50 billion plus the N18 billion under the supplementary budget. But I must also say that we are waiting for cash bac for the N18 billion under the supplementary budget. We hope that very soon we will get the cash backing,

“We are surprised that the 2024 budget dropped from N68 billion to N40 billion because that was what was appropriated to the Commission in 2021. So the amount is simply insufficient to even meet personnel costs because of the new policy on additional allowances for officials.

“The N40 billion can only cover personnel costs and social contributions. Our personnel cost in 2023 was N21.8 billion but because of the 40 percent peculiar allowance, the new DTA, the 35 percent wage award, and others, our wage bill now is N36.5 billion. If you take it out of the N40 billion, there is virtually nothing left in the budget for Capital, Electoral, and Overhead Expenditures.”