The Senate on Wednesday suspended consideration due to the report
of its Finance committee following disagreements among members over the pay cut
recommended by the panel.
This was gathered during a 2 hour deliberation behind
closed doors the senators resolved to reject the reduction of salaries and
allowances as recommended by the Senator James Manager’s committee.
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The senators said it was not possible to accept pay cut with
other beneficiaries of the N120bn National Assembly annual budget not doing
same. He said his colleagues also resolved to reject the report because the
recommendations were not practicable.
Some other senators on condition of anonymity said further
consideration of the finance committee report was stepped down because many of
their colleagues rejected the contents of the report.
Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South), said senators
told themselves the truth at the session on the need to be very cautious on
accepting reduction of salaries and allowances.
Urhoghide said that majority of the senators agreed that
“funny allowances” like the monthly N42,000 wardrobe allowance should be cut
off completely.
He said
“Yes, as recommended by the committee, all senators agreed
that there must be openness in Senate budget and by extension, that of the
National Assembly.
“At the same time, many reasoned that why should we further
reduce our budget when already, N30bn has been reduced from the traditional
150bn that it used to be for all the seven different organs of the National
Assembly.
“All of us have people in our constituencies and financial
requests from them keep piling up on a daily basis, the reality of which made
steps to be redirected, otherwise, some of us may stop coming here.”
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