The Member representing Bende federal constituency and the Spokesperson of the house, Hon Benjamin Kalu has addressed the recently published article by the daily trust on the allegations on the diversion of payment for legislative aides in the National Assembly.
Recall that article had been published on Daily Trust titled by the National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum, alleging that some aides are being shortchanged by legislators at the National Assembly.
Speaking at his weekly radio program, the ‘Ben Kalu’s Mandate’ monitored by ABN TV, the Spokesperson of the House while addressing the allegation, he urged citizens to have a change in perspective on information as it concerns the legislative arm of government.
He added that the parliament has become the punching bag for the citizens regardless of the insufficient funds under the management of the National Assembly.
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He said; ‘My call on the public is to change their spectacle so that the perspective from where they view things can be clearer than it is at the moment, I say so because, you cannot attack members of the National Assembly for a job that is under the control of the technocrats and the civil servants, as you know the National Assembly sits on three tripods, the Senate, House of Representatives as well as the management of the National Assembly, therefore if you want to complain about a job that is not handled by the members of the National Assembly, it will be a wrong call to place it on the members, why don’t you take it to the office that handles the payments. There is an office that handles these payments, I don’t know this office and I am sure many legislators don’t either.
‘If there is any problem regarding ghost workers and payments of salaries, I think it is proper for the office to do a verification exercise to purge the system and eject the people who should not be paid. This should be the right thing to do instead of attacking the members who may not even know where and how payment of staff is being made.
Responding to the complaint on legislators who slash the payment of their staff, he stated that any legislator who decides to employ incompetent staff is at the risk of shortchanging himself as it is reflected in the quality of work output from their offices.
He added that some legislators including himself also go the extra mile to employ more aides as a result of the workload in their various offices.
