Political office holders face pay cut as RMAFC reviews remuneration law

Nigeria’s politi- cal office hold- ers will likely get pay slash as the Revenue Mobilisa- tion Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) commences the review of the existing remuneration law to align with current realities of government’s dwindling revenue, par- ticularly oil.

The commission said Wednesday that in car- rying out the exercise, it would keep in mind the prevailing economic situ- ation and the need to re- duce burgeoning cost of governance so as to free more funds for develop- ment.

The review of the Act of 2008 comes at a time that President Muhammadu Buhari has signalled he would cut, not only his salary, but also for other elected government of- ficials and appointees – but Ibrahim Mohammed, head, public relations of RMAFC, told BusinessDay that the directive did not come from the Presidency.

RMAFC, which pre- scribes salaries and al- lowances for political, public and judicial office holders in line with its constitutional mandate, works with the existing Remuneration Act of 2008 to discharge these duties.

Elias Mbam, chairman of the commission, inau- gurated the members of the remuneration review committee on Wednesday, and urged them “to be conscious of the prevailing economic situation and the need to reduce cost of governance so as to free more funds for develop- ment.”

According to a state- ment from the commis- sion, the committee is expected to holistically review the existing Remu- neration Act; identify ar- eas of wastages and abuse, examine the implemen- tation of the Monetiza- tion Policy by MDAs and advise on appropriate remuneration with the work they do.

ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja