By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has defended the Commission’s 2024 budget before the Senate Committee on INEC.
This is even as he made a case for additional funding to enable the Commission fulfill its statutory obligations.
Yakubu who led a team of National Commissioners, Directors, and Technical Aides to defend the Commission’s 2024 Budget before Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli-led Committee on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at the National Assembly Complex noted that the N40 billion allocated to the Commission by the Executive in the 2024 Budget proposal was grossly inadequate for INEC to function properly.
He recalled that the sum of N50 billion was appropriated for INEC in the 2023 appropriation as its statutory budget and an additional N18 billion was approved for the Commission in the Supplementary Budget, bringing it to a total sum of N68 billion budgeted for INEC in 2023.
The INEC Chairman expressed surprise at the fall in the sum allocated to the Commission in the 2024 budget proposal. He, however, made a case for the sum of N89 billion to enable the Commission to meet its statutory obligations.
According to him “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
Explaining the performance of the 2023 budget, Yakubu said “INEC is an agency of the government with over 15 thousand staff, and we are spread all over the country. The initial N50 billion was for the Headquarters in Abuja, the 36 states and the FCT as well as 774 Local Government Offices for personnel cost, overhead, electoral and capital expenditure and because we are on the first line charge, once the budget is appropriated by the National Assembly and approved by the Executives the Ministry of Finance breaks the budget into 12 and every month we get 1/12 of the budget. So out of the N50 billion, 1/12 comes to N4.1 billion; that is what we get every month”. READ ALSO:
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Speaking further, he said: “As of 21st of November, we received the monthly remittances for 11 months and that comes to N45.8 billion so we still have N4.1 billion outstanding.
“In terms of releases, we have received 91.6 percent of the N50 billion for 2023. The budget is broken down into 4 main components into which the budget is structured. Personnel Cost N26.5 billion, Overhead Cost of N4.6 billion, Electoral Expenditure of N17.9 billion and Capital expenditure is N909 million”.
