-0- PANA VAO 24March2012
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Government's resolve to cut workers' salaries, self-approved jumbo allowances for lawmakers, bribery scandal in the legislature, court order on Shell to compensate communities for oil spill dominated front pages in Nigeria this week.
"FG regrets high recurrent expenditure, plans cut in salaries" was the headline in the Vanguard on Friday with the story saying that the Federal Government has inaugurated a 12-man committee to harmonize the salary structures of Federal public servants, with a view to reducing the burden incurred by the government annually.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, while inaugurating the committee in Abuja, said government was already overburdened by the recurrent expenditure profile.
The committee, headed by Head of Service of the Federation, Sali Bello, has the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Chairman, Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Productivity as members.
Others are Permanent Secretary/Solicitor-General, Ministry of Justice, Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Clerk of the National Assembly, Director, (Personnel Management) National Assembly, Director (Legal Services) NASS, Chief Registrar, Supreme Court of Nigeria, Secretary, National Judicial Council and Permanent Secretary, Economic Affairs, Office of the SGF as member/secretary of the committee.
The Tribune headlined its story "FG moves to cut down wage bills in parastatal agencies", reporting that the Federal Government is to evolve a harmonised salary structure in the public service to provide for a progressive reduction in recurrent expenditure for the government.
The initiative is to cut down the jumbo salary structures of some government parastatal agencies so as to harmonise them with other line agencies.
Senator Anyim Pius Anyim said Thursday “It is expected that at the end of the committee’s assignment, there will be a progressive reduction in recurrent expenditure in favour of more resources for capital budgets with a view to sustaining the economy on the path of growth and development.”
Senator Anyim, while justifying government’s action, said this was in line with the policy thrust enshrined in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (2012-1014).
He disclosed that members of the committee were painstakingly chosen bearing in mind the vital roles of the agencies represented.
The terms of reference of the committee read out to the members include the undertaking of an appraisal of the previous reviews of salary structures in the Federal Public Service and assessing their relevance in the country’s present circumstances.
Thisday's headline on the story was "FG Sets Up 12-man Salaries Harmonisation C’ttee". Its story said in addition, the committee is to examine the possibility and modalities for the adoption of a harmonized pay and compensation policy for the entire federal public service that will ensure rational and equitable remuneration structure in the service and curb incessant agitation for upward review of wages and salaries.
Their mandate will also include examination of the cause of continuous quest for special salary scales in the public service and its attendant proliferation of salary structures and bloating of the national wage bill.
The Nation's headline "House okays N38.8bn jumbo allowance for members", with the rider 'Each Rep now on N27million per quarter', aptly mirrows the disconnect in the country's financial plan, showing that while government is determined to reduce workers' salaries, the lawmakers are busy increasing their allowances
According to the Nation, the quarterly allowance of each member of the House of Representatives has hit the 27million naira (US$ 180,000) mark every three months. It used to be 15 million naira (US$ 100,000) per Representative
This translates to an 80% increase and an additional 9.720 billion naira strain on public purse every quarter or 38.88 billion naira per year.
The House leadership had been under severe pressure from members to review the allowances meant for running their oversight functions. The leadership was said to have succumbed to the pressure with a view to insulating members from temptation from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the course of performing their oversight functions.
The quarterly allowance is just one of the several enjoyed by the Reps and Senators. Other benefits and allowances, as approved by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) are salaries, vehicle maintenance and fuelling, Personal Assistant, house maintenance, entertainment, utilities, constituency allowance, hardship allowance, vehicle loan, duty tour and estacode (where applicable).
Only last year, the House requested Camry cars for the oversight functions of its 360 members, costing a total of 2.5 billion naira.
The increase in the quarterly allowance of the Reps is bound to raise questions following the recent decision by President Goodluck Jonathan to cut the emolument of public officers.
Meanwhile, the allegation of bribery levelled against some members of the House of Representatives took a new turn with the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) now probing the principals.
The Guardian on Saturday headlined its story "EFCC Quizes Hembe, Others Over Bribery Allegations". The story said the EFCC had started probing the bribery allegations that rocked the House of Representatives' recent probe of the capital market failure.
Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Market, Herman Hembe, Friday appeared before the anti-graft agency for interrogation. Hembe and other secretariat staff of the House of Representatives were said to have been invited to explain all they know about the 44 million naira (US$ 293,333) bribery allegation levelled against panel chairman and other members by the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission {SEC}, Ms. Arunma Oteh.
The SEC boss made the allegation during the committee’s sitting after Hembe accused her of corruption and reckless spending of SEC funds.
While Hembe was yet to be released by mid-afternoon Friday, Oteh was yet to appear before the anti-graft agency, according to a senior operative of the EFCC, who pleaded anonymity.
The official told The Guardian that Hembe appeared before the agency with three of his committee members, who had served as liaison officers between the panel and SEC.
The allegation that Hembe demanded for 44 million naira to fund the public hearing on the rot in the capital market, led to the dissolution of the committee and the setting up of an eight-man ad-hoc panel last Tuesday to continue with the probe.
The Nation's headline on the story on Saturday was "N44m scam: EFCC grills Hembe, three House committee staff for seven hours".
The paper reported that for about seven hours Friday, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Other Institutions, Mr. Herman Hembe, and three staff of the committee faced a barrage of questions from operatives of the EFCC on the alleged 44 million naira bribe demanded from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Director General of the Commission, Ms Arunma Oteh, had alleged that Hembe made the demand and that the refusal of SEC to play ball was partly responsible for the probe. Hembe has since denied the allegation.
On oil pollution, the Guardian headlined its story "Court orders Shell to pay N4b to five Imo communities". The paper reported on Tuesday that a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, South South Rivers State, has awarded 4 billion naira (about US$ 27 million) as general damages against Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), in favour of five communities in the South East Imo State for a crude oil spill that occurred in 1997.
A Shell pipeline which ruptured along the Egbema-Assa delivery line, had large volumes of crude oil beneath the surface until the soil became saturated, and with rising water levels, oil was carried to the surface, destroying swamps, streams, forest of Umudike, Alimiri Umudike, Ekpe Agah, Ukpazizi Ekpe Mbede and Etekuru communities in Imo State.
Based on this, the communities, led by Chief Sylvester Onyema Esiegwu (Eze-Ali Umudike-Egbema), 11 other chiefs on behalf of the communities, through their counsel , Mr. Lucius Nwosu (SAN), filed suit No.FHC/PH/CS/159/2002, to demand special damages in the sum of 5,408,000,000 naira as compensation for immediate direct losses to their means of livelihood as assessed by their expert chartered Valuation Surveyors and itemised in their report.
Prior to the suit, a 900 million naira ex-gratia was made by Shell to the communities, for which they were compelled to sign an undertaking that the full and final settlement for the oil spill had been made.
Justice Olotu ordered Shell to pay the sum of 4 billion naira as general damages for the indirect economic losses and negative environmental impact the communities suffered, including loss of objects of reverence, totems, historical land marks, air quality and associated fear and forced refugee status.
The court also granted the plaintiffs’ request that Shell should return the communities’ environment to the pre-impact status. In addition, a perpetual injunction restraining Shell from causing such pollution in the future was slammed on the company.
Shell had in a bid to determine the cause of the spill which occurred on April 29, 1997, constituted a tripartite investigation team made up of 11 persons, five of whom were on its staff, one from the Department of Petroleum Resources, as well four persons from the communities.
The papers also reported the financial gift of 20 billion naira (about 98 million euros) from the European Union (EU) to Nigeria to enable the government fight corruption and drug trafficking.
"EU gives FG N20bn to fight corruption, drug trafficking", says the Punch whose story indicated that the Nigerian government on Monday received a 98-million-euro grant from the EU to assist Nigeria in its fight against corruption. The money is also to be used for supporting the judiciary and the fight against drug trafficking.
The paper said that the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, signed the document for the grant at a ceremony in Abuja on behalf of the Federal Government while the Ambassador/Head of Delegation of the EU to Nigeria, Dr. David MacRae, signed on behalf of the EU.
Speaking at the ceremony, Usman said the project would be implemented by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).
According to him, the project is a continuation of the ninth European Development Fund supporting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the judiciary.
The main beneficiaries of the project are the Bureau of Public Procurement, Code of Conduct Bureau, Public Complaints Commission, the EFCC, National Financial Intelligence Unit, Special Fraud Unit against Money Laundering and the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti Corruption Reforms.
MacRae said the intervention would help promote good governance, transparency, accountability and combating corruption in Nigeria as well as contribute to the reforms in the justice sector and address drug-related issues in the country.
Still on the EU largesse, Thisday's headline was "EU to Commit N20bn to Antigraft War". The paper quoted a representative of UNODC, Ms. Mariam Sissoko, as saying that the expected outcomes of the project were the strengthening of anti-corruption policy making, coordination and monitoring mechanisms, strengthening of institutional and operational capacity.
It will also empower civil society and its participation in anti-corruption activities.
Thursday's coup in Mali, which sparked wide international condemnation and calls for reinstatement of the elected government of President Amadou Tomani Toure, was also awash in the papers with the Vanguard headlining its story "Mali coup a setback to democracy – Jonathan".
According to the Vanguard, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said the coup in Mali was “an apparent setback to the consolidation of democracy” and urged reinstatement of the deposed government.
In a presidential statement in Abuja, Jonathan asked the regional bloc, ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the international community not to recognise the military usurpers.
“The coup plotters have only embarked on a fruitless mission of supplanting a constitutional government by other means which goes against the current global grain of constitutionalism,” Jonathan said.
The Nigerian leader demanded an immediate reinstatement of the government of President Toure, who was forced to flee his palace during the overnight coup.
He urged the coup plotters to allow the ongoing democratic process in the country to run its full course and not to do anything that would truncate the electoral process, especially the presidential election slated for next month.
The Sun, whose headline was "Nigeria won’t recognize junta - Jonathan", also ran stories on the reactions from various quarters.
The paper said “ECOWAS strongly condemns the misguided actions of the mutineers and warns that it will not condone any recourse to violence as a means of seeking redress."
On the US, AU, EU join condemnations, the Sun said "A statement from the White House press secretary called for the immediate restoration of constitutional rule in Mali."
It said the US stands by the legitimately-elected government of President Toure. The US embassy in the capital, Bamako, also said it is monitoring the situation closely, advising US citizens to stay indoors.
The chairman of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, released a statement strongly condemning the rebellion and saying it has “no justification whatsoever.”
In its reaction, the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the mutiny.
Former colonial power France said it is suspending cooperation with Mali, while urging that President Toure not be harmed.
And the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he was following the unrest in Mali with “deep concern.”
