INEC’s budget for 2024, which is N40bn, is considered to be grossly inadequate — Prof Yakubu

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has declared that the N40 billion allocated for the Commission in 2024 was woefully insufficient.

Speaking before the Senate Committee on INEC, which is chaired by Senator Sarafadeen Ali, on Thursday, Yakubu disclosed the information.

According to the INEC Chairman, the N40 billion could only cover the salaries of the Commission’s staff and charitable contributions.

He insisted that the budget for 2024 did not adequately account for capital, overhead, and electoral considerations, given that personnel costs amounted to almost N35 billion.

Checks showed that INEC would hold governorship elections in the states of Edo and Ondo next year, in addition to bye elections for senatorial districts and federal constituencies.

Professor Yakubu disclosed that the N18 billion allotted for his Commission in the 2023 Supplementary Budget has no financial support, and he also stated that INEC will require N89 billion to run its activities the following year.

“We need N89 billion instead of N40 billion,” he declared. We have provided a thorough explanation of our plans for the N89 billion. From N26.5 billion in 2023 to N44.5 billion in 2024, personnel costs would increase, along with overhead costs of N7.9 billion, election expenses of N9.7 billion, and capital costs of N909 million.

“The N40 billion provided to us under the envelope budget is egregiously insufficient to cover our 2024 spending needs. As you may remember, the Consolidated Public Salary Structure requires all Agencies to pay the consolidated salary. This was made mandatory in March 2023 when the Federal Government implemented the forty percent special allowance.

Following the budget’s appropriation in December 2022, the circular was released. Therefore, there was not a single provision in the budget. Over 15,000 Commission employees received unusual allowances, and we needed N10.6 billion that was not budgeted for.

Simultaneously, Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) was increased by at least 100% on all fronts. Once more, we were unable to carry it out. The Federal Government then announced the N35 thousand wage award for the six-month period from September 2023 to February 2024 following the elimination of the fuel subsidy, but our budget did not include any funding for the implementation of these types of allowances.

In order to help us fulfil our responsibilities, we presented our case to the Executive, and they agreed to include N18 billion for INEC in the Supplementary budget.

In actuality, the Commission’s 2023 budget is N68 billion, which consists of N50 billion and the N18 billion from the supplemental budget. However, I must also mention that we are awaiting funding for the N18 billion allocated in the supplemental budget. We hope to receive the financial support very soon.

“Considering that N68 billion was the amount allocated to the Commission in 2021, we are shocked that the budget for 2024 has decreased from N68 billion to N40 billion. The new policy on supplementary allowances for officials means that the sum is simply not even enough to cover personnel expenditures.

Only social contributions and human expenditures can be met with the N40 billion. Our staff costs in 2023 were N21.8 billion, but our wage bill has since increased to N36.5 billion due to several factors like as the new DTA, the 40% unique allowance, the 35% wage award, and others. There is essentially nothing left in the budget for capital, electoral, and overhead expenses after deducting it from the N40 billion.