Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja on
Budget Monitoring and Pricing Intelligence Monitoring Units (BMPIU), otherwise called Due Process Office Monday revealed to the House of Representatives how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) engaged in sharp practices capable of threatening the 2007 elections.
Budget Monitoring and Pricing Intelligence Monitoring Units (BMPIU), otherwise called Due Process Office Monday revealed to the House of Representatives how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) engaged in sharp practices capable of threatening the 2007 elections.
This was in addition to the discovery by the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Umar, INEC's requesting for another N3 billion for ballot boxes in the supplementary budget before President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The same amount was approved for ballot boxes in the 2006 budget.
The scale of fraud jolted members of the House committees on Electoral Matters, Appropriation and Finance who warned INEC not to take advantage of the anxiety of the peoples' yearning for credible elections to rip the nation off by continuing asking for more money.
The House cautioned about just releasing money to INEC, adding 'if too much butter is on bread, it becomes very difficult to know what to add to it whether is the bitter or the bread."
INEC chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu had told the House of the readiness of his commission to deliver credible elections to Nigerians next year, if only the Due Process Office would cooperate with INEC.
But honouring the invitation of the House, Special Adviser to the President on Due Process, Professor Kunle Abdul Wahab accused INEC of disobeying laid down rules and inflating prices of goods above market values.
The House was shocked to learn that INEC not only quoted the sum of N12.2 million to purchase a Toyota car that sells for N9.2 million, the bullet proof jeep that was ordered for was not advertised, neither was it included in the 2006 budget of the commission.
'Through our determination to get value for money, we have assisted government to save money, the sum of N34 million would have been saved if direct purchase was done in case of the Toyota cars. INEC was not happy that we visited Toyota, this was shown in their response to us," the House was told.
On specialized items, Professor Wahab said that it was strange that INEC had to go through agents knowing fully well that such items are not items to be picked on the streets.
INEC was also accused of not providing the Due Process Office with details of the contracts such as the number of contractors, the prices quoted and other laid down guidelines for contracts.
Secretary to INEC, Abubakar Jauro who stood in for the Professor Iwu could not defended the commission as he claimed that only the chairman was in a better position to provide the details of information requested by the committee.
He however defended the supplementary budget of N3billion saying that it was meant to take care of honorariums for ad-hoc staff, training of staff and security allowances during the exercise.