The leadership of the House of Representatives has denied any underhand dealings in its oversight functions on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government, challenging any of the MDAs to expose any member of the House, who seeks gratification in the course
The chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, made the disclosure when he led members of the House Standing Committee on a courtesy visit to the headquarters of some media organizations yesterday in Abuja.
He specifically made the remarks at the corporate headquarters of LEADERSHIP Newspapers Group while reacting to a question from a member of the Editorial Board that lawmakers were complicit in the rots and corrupt practices in the MDAs.
“It is true that these are part of the stories that people tell about us that we go for brown envelopes. Those that are going to give the brown envelopes, let them expose those members (of the House) asking for it.
“What am saying is that, in the 8th Assembly, these are different issues and there could be challenges all along there, but let people do their job and I want to tell you that in this Assembly we are going to have zero tolerance for corruption”, Namdas said.
According to the Reps spokesperson, the 8th House of Reps has zero tolerance for corruption as contained in its Legislative Agenda.
On the contentious issue of Treasury Single Account, TSA, Mr. Namdas explained that the reason the 8th National Assembly can’t be part of the policy as directed by the Federal Government was constitutional, stressing that the NASS is an independent arm of government just like the Executive and the Judiciary.
He further explained that the TSA policy was meant to streamline government’s revenues from its revenue generating agencies, hence the National Assembly cannot be part of the policy since it does not generate revenue.
“We are an arm of government and the Constitution allows us to operate independently. We oversight the Executive. Now, the TSA is mainly made for people who generate revenues and we don’t generate revenue. Our expenditure as the National Assembly cannot be subjected to the Executive for oversight again.
“We came on the mantra of change and I want to assure you that the 8th Assembly is definitely going to be different from other Assemblies even by the pace we are going in terms of delivering our job. We have started differently”, Rep. Namdas said.
“For the first time, we have what we call the 8th Assembly Legislative Agenda. In this agenda, we are also fighting corruption, ensuring that we deliver legislations for good governance in terms of employment, security and several others. So, we have agreed to work together with Mr. President in line with the Change Agenda”, he added.
