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Senate quizzes el-Rufai over appointees' pay,
allowances

From John Abba-Ogbodo, Abuja

THE Senate yesterday began questioning the Minister of
Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on
why two political appointees in his office were both
paid over N20 million as staff emolument and
allowances between July 18 and December 31, last year.

The grilling of the minister, which took place in
Senate Hearing Room 4 yesterday evening was further
heightened when the Auditor-General and
Accountant-General both told the Senate Committee on
Public Accounts headed by Senator Mamman Ali, that
there was no Federal Government financial regulation
backing the payment of the emoluments to the
appointees.

The appointees, both special assistants to the
minister, were employed through a letter personally
signed by el-Rufai on July 17, last year.

The duo, Miss Aishetu Kolo and Dr. Abdu Muktar, were
in the Senate, and while answering questions from the
committee, admitted that they held the dual
citizenship of Nigeria and of United States.

Kolo said she graduated in 1997 while Dr. Muktar
graduated in 1991, although Kolo has not participated
in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

el-Rufai in his testimony disclosed that the salary of
the two and 13 others who were employed by the Bureau
of Public Enterprises (BPE) when he was its
director-general, were determined by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID).

He added that he moved Kolo and Muktar to the Ministry
of Federal Capital Territory (MFCT) on the permission
of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

But when asked for the approval of the President, he
promised to produce it later.

el-Rufai, however, maintained that the two were not
members of his staff but consultants, although their
appointment letters showed that they were employed as
special assistants to the minister.

The minister explained that the over N9.7 million paid
to Miss Kolo and the over N10 million to Dr. Kolo as
"staff emoluments between July and December 2003 would
be recovered, adding that it was a loan advanced to
them.

When The Guardian sought to speak with the minister on
his way out of the National Assembly, he said: "I
don't talk to The Guardian". Prodded further, he
declined and walked away.

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