Senate insists on pay cut for President Goodluck Jonathan and others

As the Senate awaits the presentation of the 2012 budget to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan, there are indications that the budget may run into hitches unless there is a general pay cut in all the three arms of government.

Chairman, Senate Committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who dropped the hint while addressing newsmen in Abuja said the Senate expected both the executive and the judiciary to comply with the need to reduce their budgets to help government cut down the high cost of governance.

He said: “One thing is certain, we have reached a consensus between the executive and legislature that the cost of running the government is too high and that there will be a need to cut down the cost of government and I think that, that will be the general trend in this particular budget. So, we are looking forward to seeing the budget and how much has been cut in terms of running the government.”

Abaribe, who also spoke on the reported N50 billion slash of the proposed 2012 budget of the National Assembly by President Jonathan, said the Senate would only take action when the budget is formally brought to them.

He also said the National Assembly was still expectant of the 2012 budget being that the executive had promised to send the budget in November. He said: “I do not know when the budget is going to be presented. We were told last time that it will be sometime in November, so now that we are in November, we are looking forward to getting the budget from the executive.”

Abaribe who also spoke on the probe of the alleged shady deals in the sale of government properties by the Bureau of Public Enterprise, BPE, said the report would soon be made public. He reacted to claims that the probe has been swept under the carpet upon findings that prominent Nigerians were found culpable in the privatization exercise, saying the committee will soon submit its findings to the Senate.

His words, “I think that in a very short while the report will be out. I promise you that the report will not be buried. No report that will come out of the Senate will be buried, it will be brought out and it will be open to the public because we want to ensure that we have good governance in Nigeria and the only way you can do that is to be sure that whatever you find out, ensure it is not buried.”

Source: Vanguard