El-Rufai: I Complied with the BPE Act 25 Nov 2011 Former Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) Mallam Nasir el-Rufai Former Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,  Thursday said he was neither surprised nor shocked by the recommendations of the Senate’s ad hoc committee which recently investigated the privatisation process. He said in a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, that for the purpose of clarification, he as BPE DG, approvals for privatisation issues were sought and received from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), then chaired by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. He also said: “... That was the requirement of the law, and the BPE’s compliance with it during his leadership was total. The Senate Committee is invited to make public any instance-even just one-where he (el-Rufai) breached the sales approval process.” Adekeye further said when el-Rufai appeared before the Senate’s ad-hoc committee on privatisation on August 11, he had no illusions about the results such committees produce, given his previous experience. “Prior to el-Rufai’s presentation, Ahmed Lawan, chair of the committee, said that the public hearing was not a witch-hunt, and el-Rufai retorted that it was up to the committee to demonstrate that. “Anybody who followed that day’s proceedings would recall that the questions asked after el-Rufai’s presentation were mainly seeking his advice on how to improve the privatisation process. “When Senator Lawan assumed that he had found a smoking gun in the matter of monies retained by the BPE to pay transaction costs, el-Rufai candidly explained the mechanisms and processes of the bidding process that necessitated this operational move that was approved by the NCP on 24 June, 2002,” he said. Adekeye said "the strange recommendation that he be reprimanded for an offence he did not commit follows a tradition of shoddy investigation that does no credit to the Senate. Legislation and oversight are serious matters, and it is expected that people charged with such functions would truly apply themselves, avail themselves of cognate expertise and exercise due care so that the reports of such proceedings would be suffused with the kind of integrity that begets respect." He said when his principal gets a complete copy of the widely-quoted report, he would consider whether additional clarifications and other options, including and not limited to seeking judicial review of every sentence that impugns his public service record and reputation, are required.