The next plenary meeting of the Senate on Tuesday August 11, may witness a sharp division among members over whether to adopt some of the key recommendations contained in the report of the Ad hoc committee on Finance submitted to the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki last Thursday.
Sources close to the Upper Legislative Chamber disclosed that Senators are divided over whether to adopt the key components of the report of the Ad hoc committee, particularly the areas which indicate making the records of finances of the legislative house open and transparent for anybody who is interested to easily access such information.
The division among the Senators is however not strictly on the basis of the earlier loyalties of the Unity Forum and Like Minds groups as it manifested during the election of the Senate leadership.
Rather, the dividing line is between the group which wants the Senate to jettison the recommendation of the Senator James Manager-led Committee which states that in line with the transparency and openness promised by Saraki in his inaugural speech, details of the finances of the legislative house should be made more transparent.
The implication of the recommendations is that details of the funds allocated to the Senate, the budget heads and the rate of budget performance will become public knowledge in addition to breakdown of other funds available so that more people will be aware.
Many senators, particularly the older ones, are opposed to opening up the finances of the Senate for public scrutiny as they argued that it was an unnecessary concession which is a “mere public relations gimmick”.
The “anti-openness” Senators explained that legislature’s funds is on first line charge which precludes it from any form of control by any executive body or agency, just like the fund budgeted for the judiciary. They further argued that the present position has been maintained since 1999 and it does not contradict any law. So, they wonder why the need to change a stable process.
The group noted that the Senate would not achieve anything by opening up its financial books for public scrutiny and that the gesture will not change the position and general perception of the public that the legislature is a “money guzzler”.
While opposing the position of the committee, it is believed that the Finance Committee which is a mixture of older Senators like James Manager who served as chairman and Ahmed Sani Yerima also have younger, fire-brand members like Dino Melaye and Shehu Sani. The group had to work hard and took longer time than earlier allocated in order to balance the views of the various tendencies and come out with a report that is believed to have the possibility of further endearing the Senate to the public.
However, the position of one of the Like Minds senators who spoke on condition of anonymity explained why the Tuesday plenary may be turbulent. He said: “the Senate President has said it several times to national and international audience that the eighth Senate will be transparent, open and comply with international best practices.
“The need to be open and let our financial facts and figures be known to all has become a creed between us and the public. That is one of the new things that will set the eighth Senate apart from the others. We will support our President to achieve this,” the Senator said.
Sources disclosed that the ‘Pro-openness’ senators have also argued that the recommendation is one of the strongest signals the legislative body can send to the international community, civil society groups and ordinary people that it is ready to do things differently.
“The entire world has bought into the change agenda and one of the key areas of the change agenda is this anti-corruption campaign. You cannot fight corruption except you open up the financial process. We cannot afford to renege on the promise we made from the beginning. How can we conduct oversight investigation on others if we do not start from our own home?
This report is our opportunity to convince the world that the positive change we canvass starts from us,” another of the Like Minds Senators told our reporter.
It is believed that Saraki is under pressure by both groups and it is not clear what the Senate President will decide. Sources say that the various groups spent most of the weekend consulting because the issue of money is a delicate one.
Senate watchers believe it is in the interest of the Senate for all of them to be on the same page on the issue, particularly, since it will serve common goal. The issue of a more transparent financial process featured prominently in discussions that Saraki and other senators had with the foreign envoys and other groups that had paid courtesy visit on the Senate leadership since June 9 when the legislative body was inaugurated.
However, it is believed that if Saraki could pull through the adoption of the Finance Committee report it will be another first scored by the Eight Senate under his leadership, particularly coming on the heels of the widely applauded and successful trip by the Senate delegation to the North-east zone being ravaged by insurgency.
(This Day)
No comments:
Post a Comment