HURIWA faults INEC’s budget, says it’s unacceptable

Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)THE Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has faulted the budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 general election and described it as “fraudulent, criminal and highly unsustainable.”

The non-governmental organisation, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, accused the electoral body of lack of transparency and accountability in the proposed budget.

HURIWA also criticised the delay by the Federal Government in presenting the election budget proposal and expressed bewilderment that a government which claimed to be operating on the mantra of anti-corruption could wait until the eleventh hour before presenting a budget for such a significant national event as a general election, which is only a few months away.

The group particularly condemned the current hierarchy in INEC for failing to open up on the procurement activities that take place within the body.

It urged the National Assembly to conduct forensic examination of the specific components of the budget of N189.2 billion presented before it by INEC so as to bring the entire budget to comply with extant provisions governing procurement in accordance with the Bureau of Public Procurement Act.

HURIWA also accused INEC of duplicating several sub-heads of the budget proposal which, it said, showed that there was a sinister agendum which would undermine the global best practices of compliance to the principles of transparency and accountability.

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The statement reads in part, “We urge the National Assembly not to capitulate under the heavyweight of propaganda and executive blackmail to approve this criminally-minded budget that has just been presented by INEC.

“The suspicious sub-heads in that budget proposal includes the N5.124 billion budgeted for nationwide continuous voter registration exercise which is a big scam going by the universal truth that update of voter registration is about winding up.

“Also, the incredible amount of N4.689 billion voted for feeding of security operatives for the election is simply a smokescreen to cover up for the anticipated heist that will happen the moment the cash drops in INEC’s treasury.

“The N4.614 billion classified as miscellaneous expenses is fraudulent and must never be approved just as the win components of N134.427 billion for election operation cost and N22.660 billion for election administrative cost are duplication meant to conceal the cash that would inevitably be siphoned. The budget for payment of foreign observers lacks credibility and should be discarded.”

The NG0 dismissed the entire proposal as the biggest scam of the century, just as it called on Nigerians of goodwill to speak up and monitor INEC closely to stop its leadership from “destroying the country’s hard-earned democracy through subterfuge and deliberate sabotage.”