The Senate and the House of
Representatives on Tuesday passed the N574bn Supplementary Appropriation
Bill which was N108bn higher than the N465bn figure contained in the
document, as presented to the upper chamber two weeks ago by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, while presenting his report on the
legislative action carried out on the document, explained that 90 per
cent of the budget size was meant for the payment of subsidy to major
oil marketers that imports 52 per cent of the product.
But the report failed to identify the
beneficiaries of the subsidy among the major oil marketers, neither did
it also contain details of the disbursement.
Apart from this, the committee in its
report did not mention anything about the amount being paid to the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as subsidy on the 48 per cent of
petrol being imported by the Pipeline Products and Marketing Company,
which had never been approved by the National Assembly.
Rather, Goje explained that the
provisions for subsidy payment, contained in the document, “covers
N120.5bn being arrears of 2014; N292.8bn subsidy claims from January to
September 2015; and N108.8bn being subsidy claims for the last quarter
of 2015” which was not captured in the appropriation bill sent by
Buhari.
He added that the N5bn Victim Support
Fund hitherto contained in the document under the capital
supplementation had been moved to the Service Wide Vote since it was a
Federal Government contribution to a fund managed by a committee which
was not a government agency.
He said N10.6bn was approved for the
payment of the severance gratuity and allowances of outgone and incoming
legislators and legislative aides while N29.9bn was approved for the
Armed Forces for the purpose of effectively tackling insurgency under
“Operation Zaman Lafiya.”
The chairman also said N1.5bn was for
the request by the National Sports Commission for the All African Games
Qualifications for RIO 2016 Olympics Games.
However, the principal officers of the
Senate who spoke before the final approval of the supplementary budget,
lamented that oil marketers had succeeded in blackmailing the National
Assembly to approve the bill because they ‘’no longer believe in the
subsidy regime.’’
Specifically, he described the subsidy
payment as a clear case of economic sabotage and tasked the relevant
anti-corruption agencies in the country to be alive to their
responsibilities by uncovering the fraud.
He said, “It is clear that this
supplementary budget that we have passed, we have looked at both the
request of the executive and particularly the sufferings of Nigerians to
ensure that we see that this thing is done.
“At the same time, we want to warn the
ministries and agencies in charge of this expenditure to make sure that
these funds are judiciously used.”
He therefore announced that the three
Senate committees on Appropriation; Petroleum Resources (Downstream);
and that of Anti-corruption for the purpose of exposing fraud and
recommendation of appropriate sanctions for any companies or agencies
that might misappropriate the funds.
He said, “This is a huge amount of money
and I even believe that the so-called economic sabotage agencies is
where their work is. This is truly economic sabotage where billions of
naira are being approved but not judiciously used, even our Committee on
Anti-corruption must play a role to oversee every single payment.
“We have made provisions till December. So we must ensure that this money is used properly.”
He asked Nigerians to resist further
blackmail by the major oil marketers that constantly create fuel
scarcity to get their subsidy claims.
He said, “A lot of us in the past have
spoken on this matter and I think we are doing this in the interest of
Nigerians, but I think it is high time we said no to this blackmail and
end this hardship. We must consider this in 2016.
“I think the Committee on Petroleum,
both downstream and upstream as well as Committee on Anti-corruption
should do an oversight and made necessary recommendation to the Senate
for further legislative action on this matter.”
He said, “We have been blackmailed into
passing this bill at this time; not passing it will mean that the
suffering of our people will continue. We are left with no option but to
invoke the powers given to us — that is the power to conduct
investigation; we must determine the authenticity of these payments.
“It is important for the committee to look at each payment and ensure that the claims are genuine and authentic.”
Meanwhile, Goje, during an interactive
session with journalists after the session, tried unsuccessfully to
explain why his committee failed to demand details of subsidy
disbursement before approving its payment.
He also said that his committee was not
aware of the billions of dollars being claimed by the NNPC as subsidy
for the 48 per cent of the total fuel import into the country through
the PPMC.
Also, the House of Representatives on
Tuesday approved N574.5bn as supplementary budget for 2015, just 30 days
to the close of the fiscal year.
The House had approved the report of its
joint Committee on Appropriations, Finance, Aids/Loans/Debt Management
while sitting in Committee on Supplies, pegging the final figure at
574.5bn.
The figure was up by N108.9bn above the
N465.6bn originally submitted to the National Assembly by President
Buhari on November 18.
The additional N108.9bn came from an increment to N413.3bn, which the President proposed for fuel subsidy.
This had raised the fuel subsidy vote from N413.3bn to N522.2bn.
The committee’s report indicated that
the addition came from the executive arm of government, which had
explained that the initial N413.3bn covered subsidy payment up to
September 2015 only.
It noted that the additional N108.9bn was to cover payment of claims up to December 31.
The Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, informed the House that the aggregate 2015 budget now stood at N5.08tn.
Source:punch
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