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N1.2b
debt threatens INEC
By Chuks
Ehirim
Senior
Correspondent,
Abuja
Unless the
Federal Government speedily intervenes, the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) may sink under the yoke of the burden of N1.2 billion
debts it owes various organisations.
A source
within the commission said in addition to the debts that may hinder its
ability to effectively prepare for the 2007 general election, Finance
Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has turned down its entreaties to
honour a directive from President Olusegun Obasanjo, to release some money
to it.
At a
meeting recently with party chairmen, INEC Chairman, Chief Abel Guobadia
said out of a request of N800 million that his commission was to have got
in the 2004 budget, the government was only able to release N7
million.
Guobadia
said this has resulted in INEC not being able to meet its financial
obligations to the organisations doing business with it, adding that the
commission could not pay the rent for the WAEC building it is using as its
headquarter annex in Abuja. It is also unable to pay rents in 18 states
offices as well as its offices in 342 local governments.
Sources
said other debt profiles of INEC included N86.53 million for residential
accommodation for its national commissioners and resident electoral
commissioners (RECS) in the states.
INEC also
owes N314 million to lawyers handling its cases at the various election
tribunals. The lawyers are said to have threatened to pull out of the
cases if their money is not urgently paid.
Another
debt overhang of N86.53 million that the commission is said to owe federal
parastatals like the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), Nigerian
Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and the water board, remains unpaid.
INEC is
said to be finding it extremely difficult to raise N240 million needed for
the maintenance of its computing and communication equipment that costs
billions of naira.
Other
indebtedness of the commission include N60 million needed for maintenance
and repair of operational vehicles, N43 million for Audit fees, N98
million for maintenance and repairs of office buildings at all levels,
etc.
The INEC is
said to have written president Obasanjo a number of times intimating of
the financial problems it is facing. The president is said to have
directed his finance Minister to release funds to the commission but that
this has fallen on deaf ears.
The source
disclosed that the commission has written the finance minister four times,
pleading with her to act on the presidential directives, to no avail. �She
has remained adamant and has refused to provide remedial action�, said the
source.
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