Senate Probes Alleged Mismanagement of $3.8 bn Subsidy Recovery Fund …Approves N242.245 bn elections budget


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The Senate on Tuesday resolved to probe the alleged mismanagement of $3.8 billion Subsidy Recovery Fund (SRF) by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

This is sequel to a motion moved at the plenary by the Minority Leader, Senator Biodun Olujinmi, who came under Orders 42 and 52 to draw the attention of the Senate to the alleged mishandling of $3.8 billion SRF in the custody of the NNPC.

The senator, while speaking on the matter of urgent national importance, accused both the Managing Director and an Executive Director of NNPC as sole signatories to the Fund "without recourse to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Appropriation."

The account, she said, had become a slush fund, and therefore, urged the Senate to compel its Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) to ask the NNPC on why the Fund was being managed by the executive arm of government without the knowledge of the legislature.

Contributing also, Senator Ali Ndume opposed the suggestion that the Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) be allowed to look into the matter, saying: "That call may not be necessary because if the committee had done its oversight properly, it would have known what was going on with the Fund.”

Ndume, who sat close to Senator Buka Abba, said he had just been told by Abba "that the Committee had compromised

The Chairman of the Committee on Petroleum(Downstream), Senator Kabir Marafa, was quick to respond by saying he took exception to Ndume's reservation about his committee's competence, although he also alluded to the fact that the said money may have become a slush fund.

Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, while accepting the need to look into the matter, however, stressed the need for the upper legislative chamber to be guided by facts and figures.

"Let us go by the fact available before us on this matter and not to be partisan," he further said.

The Senate president then named the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, as the Chairman of an Ad-hoc committee that will look into the matter and report back to the Senate in four days.

The Senate leader, in his reaction, said he would decline to serve on the Committee but was overruled by the Senate president who said: "Leader of Senate, there is no way you can exonerate yourself from leadership, so you will chair the ad-hoc committee."

The Senate also approved the N242 .245billion budget for the conduct of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and  security agencies.

The senators altered election budgetary proposals made for the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Service (DSS) and office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

While the police in the original proposal forwarded to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari through a virement seeking letter in July has N30billion earmarked for it, Senate approved N27.341billion for it just as it also reduced the N12,213,282,455.00 billion proposed for DSS to N10.213billion .

The N5billion raked in from Police and DSS earlier budgetary projections for the elections was however added to N4,281,500,000.00 billion earmarked for the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) jerking it up to N9.481billion .

The N189billion budgetary proposals for INEC, N2.628billion for National Immigration Service (NIS) and N3.573billion for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps were however retained and approved as requested by the President Buhari.

Approval of the N242.245 billion elections budget for 2019 by the Senate was sequel to recommendations made to that effect by its Appropriation committee.

The Committee, in its report presented at plenary by its Chairman, Senator Danjuma Goje, also differed with the president on source of virement for the N242billion.

While the president in his July letter, urged the federal lawmakers to vire the money from the N578billion special votes they allegedly inserted into the N9.12trillion 2018 budget through addition of about 1,403 projects, the Senate, in its approval of the N242billion elections budget, ordered  for its virement from Special Intervention Programme (both recurrent and capital).

Specifically, N194.7 billion out of the N242billion would be vired  from N350billion recurrent component of the Special Intervention Programme while the balance of N47.498billion would be vired  from N150billion capital component of the Special Intervention Programme .

Breakdown of the N242billion 2019 elections budget as proposed by President Buhari in the virement include Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  N189,207,544,893.00billion; Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) N4.281billion; Department of State Security (DSS) N12.213billion;  Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps  N3,573,534,500.00billion; Nigeria Police Force  N30,541,317,432.00billion and  Nigeria Immigration Service  N2,628,143,320.00billion. In his remark, Saraki, said: "The much expected elections budget has been passed and approved here in the Senate.

"It is the hope of the National Assembly and Nigerians generally that with this approval, INEC and other relevant agencies will ensure credible, free, fair and safe elections in 2019."

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