By Ben Agande, Inalegu Shaibu, Tordue Salem & Luka Binniyat
ABUJA—CHAIRMAN of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday, described the more than N80billion proposed for appropriation by the Commission to provide a fresh voters’ register and conduct the 2011 elections, as the ‘best possible sum’ to deliver the much desired credible elections next year.

The INEC boss who defended the Commission’s proposal of N74.6 billion for voters’ register and the N16billion earlier proposed for the display of voters’ register and conduct of the polls before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Electoral Matters, insisted that it was the least INEC needed for successful polls next year.

Meantime, the State House is to spend over N405million on meals between now and December , when this year’s amended budget was expected to lapse.

Vanguard learnt that the sum excluded the total amount for banquet, Federal Executive Council meetings and sundry meals.
Reps grill Jega

Chairman of the House Committee, Mr. Musa Sarki Adar and other Committee members took turns to grill the electoral umpire for several hours on the justification for the over N89billion for voters’ register and the conduct of elections. About N5.4billion was appropriated in 2009 for the review, update and display of voters’ register.

The Committee members contended that, approving the N74billion and a separate N16.4billion, plus an earlier N5.4billion for an update and display of the voters’ register inherited by Prof. Jega, would be a waste of public funds.

The INEC boss in his response, said: “We (INEC) never asked for N89billion for voters’ register. We asked for 74.69billion which in our estimation, is the requirement for voters’ register.”

Display of voters’  register

He added: “N16.4billion which the Budget Office added up to make N89billion, was not from us, and we corrected them at the budget office, but unfortunately, they did not correct it in the proposal they brought to the National Assembly.”
Jega also told the Committee that “N5.4billion as proposed by the last Commission, was not even released,” adding: “It is still needed for display of the voters’ register, when the exercise is completed, except we don’t want the registers pasted or displayed.”.

However, Mr. Adar who aggregated the sundry views of his committee members, told the INEC chairman to return to his office and “bring to the Committee, details on each unit of the Direct Capture machines, the expenditure on electoral staff, and all other proposed expenditures captured in the proposal.” INEC is expected to lay the item-by-item details before the Committee today at 12:00pm.

Senate may slash budget

The Senate, like its House of Representatives counterpart, may today pass the N89billion budget for the compilation of INEC’s fresh voters register and other logistic arrangement for the 2011 elections.
Observers, however, speculated, yesterday, that the amount may not pass untouched.

The amount includes the purchase of Direct Data Capturing machines as well as provisions for personnel that would take part in voters register and public enlightenment.

Vanguard gathered, however, that some provisions in the budget might not scale the hurdle as senators at a meeting with the chairman and INEC commissioners raised objections to their inclusion in the budget.

At a meeting between the Senate and the House of Representatives committees on INEC and Appropriations, yesterday, chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Iyiola Omisore, described the commission’s budget as embarrassing as according to him, it violated all known budgetary norms.

Omisore said that INEC’s inclusion of a profit margin of 30 per cent for contractors that may provide the direct capture machines for the elections in the budget was unorthodox.

The Senate committee chairman and other members of the committee also warned that though it was determined to provide all the needed logistics for the commission to do its job, it would hold the commission accountable for every money appropriated to it.

Omisore said the decision by the Senate committees to meet with the commission was to fast track the process of the passage of the supplementary appropriation because “we don’t want any excuse of any sort.”