National Assembly Commission seeks N2bn for personnel cost

The National Assembly Commission says additional N2 billion is required yearly to meet up with the personnel cost of staff of the National Assembly.

The chairman of the commission, Ahmed Kadi Amshi, during a visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Service Matters in Abuja, said lack of funds had disenabled the commission to implement the new National Minimum Wage Act.

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“One of the greatest challenges the commission is facing is paying staff of the National Assembly in accordance with the new conditions of service which is the issue of minimum wage. We set up a committee to look at the implication of the minimum wage to the National Assembly.

“The calculation made to determine how personnel cost can be met arrived at a figure that would see the commission in need of additional N2bn every year on personnel cost if we’re to implement the minimum wage as per the law signed by the president,” he said.

He said state governors breached constitutional provisions by posting permanent secretaries as clerks of state assemblies, noting that the commission would stop such a practice for democracy to thrive in states.

Amshi thanked the committee for the allocation of N3bn in the 2021budget for the construction of the commission’s headquarters whose ground-laying foundation he assured would commence in June.

Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Sani Bala, had asked the commission to look into the case of those whose employments were terminated few months after their recruitment.