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Senate begins internal reforms
Sam Akpe, Abuja
The Senate has commenced the implementation of internal reforms aimed at sanitising its operations and entrenching discipline among its members.
The reforms were recommended in the wake of the aborted effort by a group of senators to remove the President of the Senate, Chief Adolphus Wabara, over accusations of improper allocation of funds.
Senate Majority Leader, Dr Dalhatu Tafida, said in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday that the leadership had, on receiving the report of the special committee set-up to reform the Senate, started implementing the most urgent aspects of the report.
Although Tafida was not specific on which area of the 17-page report the Senate was working on, our correspondent learnt that finance is the first area of attention.
�We have already applied some of the urgent aspects of the reform measures. Other reform measures are being looked at and very soon they will be made public when we come to implement them,� he said.
Tafida added that when the Senate resumes on July 20, the other aspects of the reforms would be implemented.
�We are not saying that the Senate will be rancour-free. There may be rancour but not to the extent that we once found ourselves. I can assure you that we will not have the same crisis as we had two months ago.�
The Senate leader explained that it was initially difficult to contain the attempt to remove Wabara at that time because the leadership was taken by surprise, and that Wabara was out of the country.
He said the Senate had learnt from the experience.
An aspect of the report shows that the entire capital vote of the Senate will be left for the Senate Services Committee to administer.
The committee is expected to conduct regular audit of the official requirements of senators with regard to office and residential accommodation.
In the case of a yearly expenditure for the Senate, it was recommended that the committee should prepare a disbursement proposal based on the official requirements of senators and send the proposal to a closed-door session of the Senate for consideration.
It was also recommended that to avoid the kind of incident that led to the threat to remove Wabara, a substantial part of the medical allowance meant for senators should be paid to the beneficiaries directly to enable them organise their medical check-ups on their own.
In the past, senators seeking medical treatment within and outside the country were expected to apply to the President of the Senate for funds, a situation that was allegedly abused.
The disbursement of such fund will now be discussed in the Senate while �amount standing to the credit of the medical fund in the Senate administration will be disbursed equally to the senators at the end of each financial year.�
On retirement of advances, it was recommended that all senators should retire their advances or have their fresh requests turned down. The accounts department will issue certificates of clearance to those who settle their bills satisfactorily.
It was also recommended that senators� entitlements should be paid on time.
An aspect of the recommendations that sources said did not go down well with some senators is the submission of performance report by different committees to the President of the Senate.
On the budget, of the Senate, the report stated that the Senate Services Committee should be mandated to prepare the draft for disbursement to the leadership which will in turn present it to the Committee of the Whole Senate for discussion and adoption before the presentation to the Appropriation Committee for inclusion in the final draft.
The Senate was also advised to stop the frequent establishment of ad-hoc committees since there are Standing Committees that cover all aspects of Senate operations.
Ad-hoc committees, according to the report, should only be setup for special assignments on the leave of the Senate when it becomes extremely necessary or where no Standing Committee covers such an issue.
The Punch, Thursday, July 1st , 2004
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