Disbursements from the Federal Government to the National Assembly management rose from N126.3bn in 2022 to N316bn in 2024, marking a 150 per cent increase, according to findings
The Federal Government’s outflows to the legislature within the period under review covered the assembly’s statutory allocations, project execution payments, supplementary allocations, hosting of conferences, and settlement of severance packages for members of both the ninth and 10th assemblies.
Since the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, took effect in June 2023, statutory revenue allocations from the federation account to the three tiers of government have risen significantly, reaching N15.26tn in 2024.
This marked a 43 per cent increase over the 2023 figures, according to the Federation Account Quarterly Review report.
Checks by our correspondent using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, showed the National Assembly monthly statutory allocation rose from N13.59bn in 2022 to N28.7bn in 2024, representing a 111.2 per cent increase.
The platform revealed that no fewer than 11 financial transactions were made to the National Assembly management in 2022, 16 were made in 2023 and 11 in 2024, amounting to N126bn, 260bn and N316bn respectively.
Other payments made over the period aside the statutory allocations include a total sum of N7.8bn as statutory transfers paid in August and December, 2023 for the completion of the National assembly library.
Other payments include N6.8bn to the previous and current assembly members in December 2023, but the purpose of the payment wasn’t stated on the platform.
For 2023, there was also N70bn payment made in October as supplementary appropriation for the assembly, N2bn in September as additional funding for the lawmakers and N8.8bn released in July as 50 per cent of the approved N17.6bn sum for the severance package of the legislators.
In 2022, N10bn was released in May as part payment for outstanding liability owed contractors and suppliers for contracts executed in the assembly complex, while N150m was paid in April for the hosting of the conference of Speakers of African Parliaments held between 11th and 19th of May.
Commenting in the spending, the Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said until the country formulates a new constitution that regulates public spending, profligacy will continue to exist within the government.