{"id":2160,"date":"2013-04-15T01:34:44","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T01:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/senators-dont-collect-funds-award-contracts-for-constituency-projects\/"},"modified":"2013-04-15T01:34:44","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T01:34:44","slug":"senators-dont-collect-funds-award-contracts-for-constituency-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/senators-dont-collect-funds-award-contracts-for-constituency-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Senators don\u2019t collect funds, award contracts for constituency projects\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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QUITE in contrast to what is commonly believed, lawmakers neither collect funds nor award contracts for constituency projects, according to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinnaya Abaribe.<\/p>\n

The contracts for such projects, according to the panel, are  executed by relevant ministries.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur real worry is that there has been the notion, and we have given this explanation severally against the belief that senators are being given certain funds for our constituency projects.   There is no such thing, we have never collected any money for constituency project or awarded any contract. The projects are being executed by the different ministries, which also determine who gets the contracts,\u201d the panel Chairman, Abaribe, said during a visit to Rutam House, the corporate headquarters of The Guardian, in Lagos recently.<\/p>\n

The clarification was partly a reaction to an editorial published in The Guardian of March 26, 2013, which bordered on execution of constituency projects.<\/p>\n

The editorial reads in part: \u201c\u2026The decision by the Presidency to monitor the implementation of so-called \u2018constituency projects\u2019 is one more example of the odium that practitioners have brought constitutional democracy into in Nigeria. Every year since 1999, each of the federal legislators or his or her constituency has been voted millions of naira to execute projects in the said constituency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first question to ask is what exactly is meant by \u2018constituency projects\u2019? In jurisdictions where the current style of government is borrowed from, it means projects that may be executed by the central government in exchange for a legislator\u2019s support on key issues. Such projects may then serve the purpose of showcasing a legislator as a \u2018performer\u2019 capable of bringing home the federal bacon. The desperation, to the point of blackmail, with which Nigerian legislators insist year-in year-out, on this component of the budget is however baffling. There are hardly instances of similar pressure for Executive action in respect of more pressing matters of public interest.   And the point must be made that, the practice in other climes does not allow for direct payment to the legislators or their direct involvement in execution of projects as we have in Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the visit to The Guardian, Abaribe, who was accompanied by his colleague in the Senate, Babafemi Ojudu, said the situation was different from the way the editorial presents it, noting that the National Assembly had taken time to explain several times to Nigerians the truth about the projects with the aim of correcting wrong impressions.<\/p>\n

Abaribe also debunked claim that the Legislatures are arm-twisting the Executive to ensure that the projects are executed, saying \u201cif we are the people collecting the funds and executing the projects, then there would not have been any reason for conflicts with the Executive with regard to execution. Most of the conflicts between the Executive and the National Assembly have always been with regard to the execution of these projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that when the National Assembly took off in May 1999, a budget was already running. \u201cThe very first budget was done at the end of 1999 which of course spilled over to the following year, 2000. By the time the 2000 and 2001 budgets were made, it was obvious that the budget process was poor in certain ways. It was poor in the sense that budgets were being done in Abuja and at that time, there was no proper Budget Office. The bill for setting up the Budget Office came around 2003, and so those budgets were prepared top down, and by then, members of the National Assembly were already under pressure from their constituencies, who wanted to know how the budgets would affect their lives\u201d<\/p>\n

Abaribe said most of the constituency projects were domiciled within the different ministries. \u201cWe neither receive any fund, execute any project nor award any contract. For instance, the River Basin Authority did all the water projects while all the electricity projects were domiciled within the Ministry of Power, all these claims are verifiable. The fact is that, in trying to do it very well, each senator is supposed to be able to identify the area of his constituency that has the most need of a particular project so that he can say locate it in a particular area. The question of who executes the project was left for the different ministries or agencies to determine.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ojudu, the people being represented seem not to be informed enough about the constitutional roles of these legislators. He said the nature of the numerous calls lawmakers received from those that voted them into National Assembly weakens their morale.<\/p>\n

Ojudu noted that most constituencies yearn for federal presence but unfortunately they do not recognise what the government is doing because they expect a big project instead of the little their lawmakers were able to influence to be executed in their constituency.<\/p>\n

He urged the media to help the Senate enlighten the populace, noting that the success or progress of any country depends a lot on the strength of the media of such country.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: Guardian Newspaper<\/p>\n

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