Concerned leaders and members of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of Akwa Ibom State government, on Monday, lamented the purported extortion from them by members of the state House of Assembly.
This fear, according to them, “is because of previous experiences of exploitation and arm twisting each time members of the executive have reasons to interface with the legislature on issues of budget presentation, defences and reviews.”
Head of one of the government agencies in the state, who spoke with correspondents in Uyo on the ground of anonymity, lamented that the seventh assembly has been quite brutal when it comes to taxing members of the executive.
He said the processes of budget implementation review initiated by the sixth assembly has been converted to an avenue to exploit and extort money from members of the executive.
His words, “The budget implementation reviews was designed to give members of the MDAs the opportunity to work with the Finance and Appropriation committee of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to check the extent to which the year’s budget has been implemented, monies approved and released into ministries, Department or agency and how well such monies were utilized.
“Unfortunately, the legislature, especially the committee in charge has decided to make that an avenue to draw money from the MDAs, they do not even bother to look at the files, so their major concern now rests on the amount released to your ministry and what percentage you have to offer them from there.”
When confronted with claims by the agency, a member of the state executive council, who also pleaded anonymity, confirmed the allegations and went further to complain that such had affected the synergy and the close working relationship existing between the executive and the legislature.
“It is not just true but has become a very worrisome trend, many of my colleagues are even becoming scared of where they would get funds from, to enable them appear before the Finance and Appropriation committee of the house to defend their ministry’s budget. They wont even touch your file if you do not drop.
“The sad aspect of this whole thing is that we all belong to the same political party and should work in one accord for the government we all put in place and the government that also assisted each and every one of us during our elections. But the way they go about it is very unfortunate.
“Could you imagine that each nominee for appointment into the state executive council was charged the sum of N5000,000 (Five Million Naira)? Those who could not afford it were advised by the House of Assembly to obtain a loan before they could be screened. Where are we heading, we are all working for the same government,” he lamented.
A member of the house of Assembly, who was part of the sixth assembly, in reacting to the allegation, said he was aware of it, but condemned such act as working against oneself.
“I am aware of it, its really becoming alarming, i just hope the whole thing would not bring down the reputation of the entire 7th assembly,” he said.
When contacted, the Chairman Finance and Appropriation Committee of the House, Mr Uduak Ududo, said his committee was yet to start work on the budget estimate forwarded to the house.
“Let them write whatever they want to write, I am not afraid of anything, even if they want to announce it on radio, I don’t get bothered about such things, my committee has not even started work and they are already complaining,” the lawmaker said.
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