By Musa Baba Adamu
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio at the weekend disclosed that President Bola Tinubu will in December inaugurate N30 billion worth of projects ongoing in the National Assembly Complex.
This is just as the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) declared September ending as the deadline for documentation of legislative aides of the entire 469 federal lawmakers in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Receiving in audience the Chairman and members of the governing board of NASC in his office in the National Assembly, Akpabio who disclosed the December date for the commissioning of the National Assembly projects, said “The entire Complex of the National Assembly is like a construction site now due to ongoing general renovation work and fresh projects which would on completion, be commissioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in December this year.
“Aside the general renovation work, part of new edifices being put in place, is the permanent office complex of the National Assembly Service Commission and very befitting Library Complex”, he said.
Though he did not state the amount of money that had been released to contractors handling the project, the 9th National Assembly had appropriated N30 billion to Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for execution of the project, out of which as at March this year, only N9billion was released.
The Senate President, in response to the request made by NASC Chairman, Engineer Ahmed Kadi Amshi, on prompt documentation of legislative aides of lawmakers, assured him that the September deadline would be abided with.
The NASC Chairman had in his address, told the Senate President and other principal officers of the Senate that the end of September this year, has been fixed as the deadline for documentation of aides of the 469 federal lawmakers.
He noted that documentation of Aides to the lawmakers was very important for payment of entitled emoluments to them.
“Your Excellency Mr President of the Senate, please help us to inform the serving Senators and by extension, Hon members of the 10th National Assembly, to forward names of their appointed legislative aides to us for required documentation and payments of monthly salaries.
“The Commission has opened relevant files for this purpose and fixed September this year as the deadline”, he said.
He added that within the last three years, the commission under his leadership, has promoted a total of 2,775 staff, converted about 447 others from one cadre to the other and set code of ethics for ethical conducts of staff at all times.
