INEC Seeking Approval to Withdraw N5.2 Billion
According to Electoral Act 2010, the Special INEC Fund was created to enable the commission save a certain percentage of its allocations for rainy days and emergencies. There has been no withdrawal since the inception of the special fund in 2010.
The chairman, Prof Yakubu said INEC had no problem with 2019 budget, however, the global health pandemic has disrupted the plans and strategies of the commission which led to some financial challenges in the 2020 budget.
N40 billion was proposed as INEC budget for 2021, this budget was expected to cover electoral expenses, litigations and overhead cost amidst growing personnel cost. However, the budget has been reduced to N36 billion as a result of the budget cut caused by the negative effect of COVID 19.
“But what has happened now is our budget for 2020 dropped to N40 billion from N45.5 billion in 2019. And as a result of the 10 percent COVID cut, it further dropped to N36 billion in the middle of the year when we had already made preparation for expenditure, and therefore, since that fund is made for the rainy days, I informed the committee that the rainy day has come. So we are taking part of the fund to balance our budget for this year.” Prof Yakubu explained.
The cut in budget prompted the commission to seek Senate’s approval to withdraw N5.2 billion from the INEC SPECIAL FUND.
“The Commission cannot be independent unless it is financially independent. There are some activities that happen that are time bound or bound by some specific provisions of the constitution that the Commission has to undertake,” he said to the media.
“So, the fund was established to allow the Commission to discharge those responsibilities. It was established in 2010 but there was no cause to spend from it, and from the last five years this Commission did not spend from it”, he further stated.
He further revealed the legal challenges faced by the commission on pre-election and post-election court cases from general elections held in 2019.
“For instance, if we have a case for governorship election before the Supreme Court, it is a maximum of N4.5 million, but because of the number of cases, we are almost getting close to 1,700 pre-election and post-election cases in 2019 alone”.
“Every day you hear people going to court and joining INEC, but we will continue to do what we can within available resources”, he added.
Thereafter, he directed the INEC chairperson to, report back on specific legislative issues and restructuring of salary structures for the commission within the next three months.
