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Next year’s governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states may be hampered by financial constraints unless there is increased budgetary allocation to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), its chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said yesterday.

He said the allocation should be increased from the current N40 billion to N89 billion to enable the agency perform its constitutional responsibilities creditably next year.

Yakubu complained that the cash backing for the N18 billion approved as supplementary budget for the commission by the National Assembly before the last off cycle elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states have not been released.

The Edo governorship election is expected to hold in September next year while the Ondo poll may hold in October.

Also, court-ordered by-elections are expected to be conducted by INEC.

The agency will also conduct by-elections to fill some National Assembly seats, which became vacant, following the appointment of the federal lawmakers into the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The chairman, who defended the Commission’s 2024 budget proposal before the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, pointed out that the N40 billion appropriated for it for 2024 can only cover it’s personnel and social contributions.

In 2022, N40 billion budgetary allocation was approved for INEC. It was jacked to N50 billion in 2023 budget. However, the commission requested for N335 billion for the conduct of 2023 general election.

Yakubu explained that with N35 billion personnel cost, the next year’s budget did not make adequate provision for capital, overhead and electoral matters.

He recalled that while N50 billion was appropriated for INEC in 2023 as its statutory budget, an additional N18 billion was approved for the Commission in the Supplementary Budget, bringing it to N68 billion.

Yakuu said: “We need N89 billion rather than N40 billion. We have given a detailed breakdown of how we intend to spend the N89 billion. Personnel cost rises from N26.5 billion in 2023 to N44.5 billion in 2024, overhead cost N7.9 billion, electoral expenditure N9.7 billion and a capital expenditure N909 Million.

‘The N40 billion given to us under the envelope budget is grossly inadequate to meet our expenditure requirement for 2024. You may recall that the Federal Government introduced the 40 percent peculiar allowance in March 2023 and all Agencies that are on the Consolidated Public Salary Structure were required to pay the consolidated salaries.”

“The circular came after the budget was appropriated in December 2022. So, no provision was made in the budget at all. To pay the peculiar allowance to over 15 thousand staff of the Commission we needed N10.6 billion that was not provided for.”

He added: “At the same time Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) was revised by a minimum of 100 percent across the board. Again, we could not implement it.

“Then, after the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, the N35 Thousand wage award by the Federal Government for six months from September 2023 to February 2024 was announced and there was no provision in our budget for the implementation of these categories of allowances.

“We made a case to the Executive, and they made a provision for N18 billion for INEC under the Supplementary budget to enable us meet these obligations.

“Practically speaking, the budget for the Commission for 2023 is N68 billion; the N50 billion plus the N18 billion under the supplementary budget. But I must also say that we are waiting for cash backing for the N18 billion under the supplementary budget. We hope that very soon we will get the cash backing,

“We are surprised that the 2024 budget dropped from N68 billion to N40 billion because that was what was appropriated to the Commission in 2021. So, the amount is simply insufficient to even meet personnel costs because of the new policy on additional allowances for officials.

“The N40 billion can only cover personnel costs and social contributions. Our personnel cost in 2023 was N21.8 billion but because of the 40 percent peculiar allowance, the new DTA, the 35 percent wage award, and others, our wage bill now is N36.5 billion. If you take it out of the N40 billion, there is virtually nothing left in the budget for Capital, Electoral, and Overhead Expenditures.” (The Nation)

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