MEMBERS
of the House of Representatives are angry with Petroleum Minister, Mrs.
Diezani Alison-Madueke, over the continued spending of several billions
of naira on annual rents by agencies in the ministry. They sunmmoned her yesterday to explain why the agencies appropriate billions of naira yearly on rents instead of getting permanent offices.
The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) also expressed concern that most of the agencies under the ministry are not working together, a situation which is not healthy “because government is one and working towards the same goal”.
The Committee, chaired by Ajibola Muraina at the budget defence meeting with Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), noted that several agencies in the nation’s oil sector still appropriate several billions of naira as rents in their annual budget instead of exploring ways of getting their own permanent buildings.
Ajibola, who wondered why Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) could not synergize among themselves in the interest of good governance, added that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) expended over N1 billion spent on a land as its headquarters only to be revoked by the Federal Capital Development Agency (FCDA).
The chairman said: “It baffles me why these Ministers find it difficult to interact and resolve this land matters amicably. NEITI is saying that it has applied several times for land in the FCT without success. This is unbelievable.”
The committee, however, urged Mrs. Alison-Madueke to work hard and ensure that most of the agencies under her ministry get land for their permanent office buildings instead of paying billions of naira as annual rents.
The committee charged NEITI’s management, led by its Chairman, Professor Humphrey Assisi Asobie, and Executive Secretary, Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, to ensure it adopts concise language in the presentation of its budgets instead of relying only on the template provided by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The committee, however commended NEITI for its roles in ensuring transparency in the nation’s oil and mineral resources sectors.
Meanwhile, Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was yesterday chided by the House of Representatives with a call on her to henceforth stop giving 'budget envelope' to Ministries and Agencies under them.
The House also expressed concerns that if the trend is not stopped, the nation will find it very difficult to move forward and meet its key economic indexes.
While calling for a new budgeting system for the nation, the Reps said attitude of the Finance Ministry has furthered undermined economic growth.
This was disclosed yesterday by the Chairman, House Committee on Human Rights, Beni Lar, while receiving a delegation of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) led by its Executive Secretary, Prof. Ben Angwe in Abuja.
Lar was reacting to a complaint by Angwe that most Agencies and Parastatals of the Federal Government including NHRC are unilaterally given budget limitation by the Finance Minister, a development he said hampers their effectiveness.
She said: "The issue of envelope budget is not serving this nation. We must find a new way of doing this. The Finance Minister cannot just sit down alone without consulting the National Assembly and the MDAs under them on their budgeting"
"We must find a new way of doing budgeting in this country in order to move forward. The NHRC, for example, is a mechanism of justice for all categories of Nigerians which must be adequately funded"
Angwe, who had appeared before the Committee yesterday to defend its N1.4 billion budget, however, revealed how the Finance Ministry had sometimes ago handed over a budget envelope of N802 million to him requesting the NHRC to propose with the sum.
The Committee further expressed dismay when it learnt from Angwe that same N802 million ceiling was given to NHRC in the year 2012.
While lamenting that NHRC is not being carried along like most MDAs in the proposal of their budget, he said: "The truth is that I have never received any invitation to defend our budget. The only opportunity I have is appearing before the National Assembly annually"
The Committee, however, promised to look into the 2013 Budget proposal of NHRC having expressed satisfaction with that of 2012 put at N802 million.
In a related development, former Works Minister, Chief Tony Anenih, was yesterday summoned by the House of Representatives to come and defend his actions on a N2.3 billion allegedly spent on a failed road contract in Nasarawa state in 2006.
Others summoned by the House Committee on Public Accounts include the site engineers, Federal Comptroller of Works and the Permanent Secretary of the ministry when the contract was awarded.
The chairman of the committee, Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, however, said that the committee would not hesitate to use the services of Interpol to extradite the contractor, Torno Internazionale Nigeria Limited who was said to have left the country after collecting the sum of N1.8 billion without executing the road project contract he was awarded.
He said: "Chief Anenih was being invited in respect of a memo he presented to then Federal Executive Council, FEC under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which made the FEC to award the contract to the firm despite earlier strong advice that the firm had no technical capacity to handle the road project".
The committee, however, expressed reservation as to why such huge amount of money would go down the drain under the watchful eyes of those at the helms of affairs.
The Auditor General of the Federation, AGF had in its 2006 audit report alleged that the failed road was awarded N2.3 billion out of which N552 million was paid before the contract was terminated and later went to court and obtained court judgement of N1.3 billion against the Federal Government for terminating the contract.
Meanwhile, the committee has invited the contractor along with site engineers and Federal Controller of Roads over another failed N1.45 billion road contract in Enugu State.
The Auditor-General of the Federation, in a query also raised in 2006, alleged that the contract was awarded in 1999 at N1.45 billion and had reached about 70 per cent completion stage before it was terminated on the request of the contractor and later re-awarded.
The Federal Controller of Works, Dan Shehu, an engineer, who appeared alongside with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Alhaji A. K Mohammed, alleged that the road contract was terminated at the instance of the contractor who claimed that the contract was awarded at low rate and as such could not continue which prompted to re-award the remaining 30 per cent at the cost N1.09 billion.
NigerianCompass
