These were the questions yesterday when Petroleum Resources Minister Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke appeared before a joint committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives to defend her ministry’s 2013 budget proposal.
Finance Minister Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is to explain why ministries and agencies are not adequately funded.
Six committees of the National Assembly were involved in the budget defence. They include Petroleum Upstream, Downstream and Gas of both the lower and upper chambers.
Though some of the lawmakers, apparently out of frustration, murmured that the session was a “jamboree” and left; others, especially committee chairmen, stayed till the end of the exercise.
The Minister told the lawmakers that of N2.2billion capital appropriation for the ministry’s 2012 budget, only N820million or 41 per cent was released.
She added that of the N820million, the ministry spent N759million, representing 93 per cent performance.
The lawmakers wondered what was going on about release of funds to ministries from the 2012 appropriation.
Senator Danjuma Goje was particularly worried that something was wrong with the manner the Federal Government releases funds to MDAs.
He was worried that if the “goose that lays the golden egg” received less than half of its approved budget as at November 2012, then it meant that something was amiss with the running of the economy.
He said he was aware that most MDAs had been complaining of poor release of funds.
Goje said: “If your ministry that produces the petroleum, which is a major source of income for the country, is being poorly funded, then it is very disappointing and discouraging.
“Is it that you are no longer producing? Is it that what you have produced is not being sold? Or is it that the buyers are refusing to pay for the products?
“I am aware that the crude oil benchmark in the 2012 Appropriation Bill is far lower than the current market price for oil in the international market.
“So if the money is not there to be released to the ministries, like your own for capital projects, where do they get the money they pay into the excess crude account?
“The question is, where is the money? Maybe Nigerians need to ask the Minister of Finance where she kept the country’s money. It is necessary that Nigerians, through the parliament are told where their money is.”
The chairman of the joint committee, Senator Emmanuel Paulker said it was unacceptable for only 41 per cent of the ministry’s budget to have been released close to end of November.
Paulker said: “Production of 150 million barrels of crude oil a day is not a mean figure. We don’t see how you can meet up.
“We only have December left for 2012 and that is why we are worried. The Senate has adjourned for one week today to enable Committee Chairmen prepare the 2013 budget for passage before the end of the year. We are not pleased at all.”
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Nkechi Nwaogu, noted that the problem is that of the Minister of Finance, who she said did not release funds to the MDAs.
She added that the Minister should be asked to explain where the money is, especially now that the year is coming to an end.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke, spoke to reporters on persistent fuel scarcity, She said: “We will try and ensure that now that verifications in terms of subsidy, the Aig-Imhokuede report has been completed, and payments are beginning to go out to the marketers, you can see already that petrol queues are lessening around the country.
“We will again begin to push…you will recall that before these period of strikes and fuel subsidy problems, we had ensured that Nigeria was wet all around the country with petrol.
“So, it was not on our instance. There have been issues that all Nigerians know. We cannot eat our cake and have it. If we have exposed issues in the payment of fuel subsidy and manipulations in that system, then it has to be adequately investigated.
TheNation
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