Query ministry over expenditure
Order audit of NAFDAC accounts
AS it begins a clause-by-clause consideration of the recently released report on the petroleum products subsidy scheme today, the House of Representatives has alleged a grand plan by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and some oil marketers to discredit its findings and recommendations.
The Chamber described the purported recourse to legal action by 18 marketers as a diversionary move aimed at taking the subsidy scam off the front- burner as further discussion of the matter would then become subjudice.
The report, which was laid in plenary last week by the chairman of probe panel, Farouk Lawan, is slated for debate today.
Also, the House Committee on Public Account and Science and Technology has queried alleged N661 million extra-budgetary expenditure in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Similarly, the panel had raised questions over the use of N557 million budgeted for the hosting of the International Junior Science Olympiad between 2009 and 2010.
It also disclosed that the ministry, in 2011, raised 31 different vouchers for N32 million it used to purchase stationeries even as there were allegations that the funds for the consumables were not properly retired in line with due process.
The audit query raised by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation currently before the PAC also stated that the ministry preferred to warehouse its capital projects’ funds in the accounts of its agencies instead of saving same in its accounts.
Although some of the audit queries against the ministry have been subsisting for the past seven years, the Committee Chairman, Solomon Adeola, said the ministry had failed to appear before the committee to defend the budgetary infractions.
Consequently, the panel has given Science and Technology Minister, Ita Okon Bassey-Ewa, a seven-day ultimatum to appear before it to respond to these audit queries.
Similarly, the House committee has mandated the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation to audit the accounts of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in the last six years.
Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Muhammed, in a statement yesterday, said several individuals and corporate entities, including some oil marketers, had failed to appear before the subsidy probe panel.
Muhammed stated: “Some of these organisations conveniently chose to stay away obviously because they have something to hide, only to turn around now and claim non-invitation.
“Regarding the group of 18 marketers who were deeply involved in the subsidy pay-outs but declined to appear before the ad-hoc committee, the purported recourse to legal action is, in our opinion, an orchestrated plot to scuttle the findings of the committee.”
Muhammed observed that “following the presentation of the report on subsidy regime, several individuals, marketers and corporate organisations not favoured by the report have sought to impune its authenticity.
“Coming under various guise, including but not limited to buck-passing and alleged non-invitation to the investigative hearing, several of them are desperately seeking to undermine the outcome of the report consideration billed for tomorrow (today).”
He dismissed the decision by the marketers to go to court against the House, as they failed to appear before the ad-hoc panel to state their side of the story on the subsidy scheme.
The House spokesman also took a swipe at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) claims that the ad hoc committee had altered its own report.
His words: “The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) claims that the ad hoc committee report may have been altered to embarrass it (the NNPC) is only in tandem with the current reckoning of its spokesman as a ‘Chief Denial Officer’. The corporation must have been in possession of another version of the report for it to assert that the one officially laid before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 was altered.
“As the House of Representatives begins a clause-by-clause consideration of the report tomorrow (today), we urge all Nigerians to be vigilant and wary of those who would rather want the country continued to be run in the usual corruption way, which puts unmerited resources in individual pockets at the expense of the people.”
SOURCE: Guardian Newspaper, 24 April 2012. http://ngrguardiannews.com/
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