Akwa Ibom state governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel.
Abasifreke Effiong – Uyo
Policy Alert, a non-governmental organisation working to promote social, environmental and economic justice in Nigeria, has called on state governments to “abolish the regime of so-called security votes in the country.”
The call was made in a memorandum by the organisation to a public hearing on a Bill to Establish the Akwa Ibom State Security Trust Fund convened by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
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Policy Alert says “security votes have for a long time been used by state governors as slush funds that encourage corruption and waste.”
The memorandum signed by the organisation’s Research and Advocacy Officer Mfon Gabriel, noted that Akwa Ibom appropriates at least N16 billion every year as security votes for the governor.
“Over the last ten years, Akwa Ibom State’s annual appropriation laws have provided an average of N16 billion Naira each year as security votes for the governor. This is about three percent of a state’s annual budgets that are traditionally unaudited and unaccounted.”
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It further stated: “In establishing a fresh legal framework for security financing, which will among other sources, draw funds from the state government, it is our view that the new law must become a means for abolishing the wasteful and corrupt aberration that security votes represent. The new law must be guided by what we have learnt from the annual appropriation laws, so that we do not end up duplicating spending taps for security.
The organisation suggested that 50 percent of the amount appropriated as security votes in the last annual appropriation law before the commencement of the proposed law be paid into the Security Trust Fund each year as a statutory contribution and the amount should be reviewed every three years.
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The NGO believes that by so doing, “the hitherto unaccounted security votes would finally be brought within the purview of the State House of Assembly’s oversight function.”
The organisation also recommended that 0.5 percent of the total cost of every government contract awarded by the State and Local Governments should be taxed as a mandatory contribution to the Fund, and a provision for a basket within the Fund to be reserved for socio-economic interventions as a means of addressing the root causes of conflict and insecurity and the needs of vulnerable demographics with the state.
