The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has said the remuneration packages of political office holders is currently under review.
Addressing State House correspondents on Tuesday after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari on the activities of the commission, RMAFC Chairman Elias Mbam emphasised that the review would affect members of the National Assembly owing to the present socio-economic realities.
As stated by Mbam, the review would be ready before the end of September, saying the National Assembly members have no choice, but to accept it as the commission is guided by the constitution and the oath the federal legislators swore to obey.
He said: “We are currently reviewing the subsisting renumeration packages, and it is going to reflect the socio-economic realities of today. We expect that before the end of next month, it will be ready. But it will go through a process, it is not something that you will just say yes or no. It will go through a process and it should be obvious to you, the economic realities of the day and it is going to reflect that”.
Responding to a question on whether the review would affect the National Assembly, he answered in the affirmative, saying: “When I talk of packages, the responsibility of the commission is to determine the renumeration for political office holders, both elected and appointed, from the national level to the local government level. Of course, National Assembly members are elected, it will include them, it will include the judiciary, it will include the state legislature, executive and of course, the local government will be included”.
On his thoughts about acceptance by members of the National Assembly, he said: “They do not have a choice. We are guided by the constitution and we are going to be guided by such laws that are provided for in the constitution and the oath they swore to obey the laws of the country”.
The RMAFC boss who said the commission started the review last year, and not because of President Muhammadu Buhari's administration further explained that the review became necessary in view of the global oil price decline as well as the inability of states and many federal government agencies to pay salaries.
He said the commission started the review last year, noting that it was not because of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
“Recently, the oil price dropped. Many government agencies, the states and local governments have not been able to pay their salaries. These are some the issues that made it necessarily to review it. It did not start with this administration, we started the review as far back as last year. It is not because of the present administration that we commenced it,” he stated.
Mbam faulted media reports on the remuneration packages of the National Assembly members, stressing that based on what the commission decided, no federal lawmaker should earn up to N1 million per month.
“We’ve done a lot in informing the general public on the true position of the remuneration packages. First and foremost, it’s on our website. It’s clearly written there, and we’ve had cause to publish these remuneration packages severally in many national dailies. We’ve also had interactions with press at different fora where we explained what the commission had determined. What we read on the pages of newspapers is not known to the commission because there is no member of the National Assembly, based on what we determined, that should earn up to N1million per month”, he stated.
As stated by the RMAFC chairman, President Muhammadu Buhari advised the commission to use all legitimate means to ensure that all public office holders take home the remuneration as determined by it.
Mbam said President Muhammadu Buhari also advised the commission to ensure that leakages are blocked and “we try to expand the size of the cake”.
On his opinion on the revenue sharing formula, he said: “I do not want to give a definite date because it is beyond my control. I do not determine when the process will be concluded, but as far as the commission is concerned, we have concluded our work and announced to the general public that we have a draft. But you know it goes through a process before it finally becomes a law”.
Mbam said his team told Buhari that the RMAFC was not properly funded and that the commission should be one of the agencies of government that should have financial autonomy, adding that “The best way to do that is to include it as one of the agencies that will benefit from first line charge”.
He said the president was also told about the need to give the commission the power of enforcement.
"They (the National Assembly) should review the Act establishing the commission so that it can have power of enforcement and sanctions on any of the defaulting MDAs," Mbam stated.