Senate wants unviable missions shut, backs oil sector reforms

Posted by admin Legislature, Senate Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Oil firms without retail outlets import products

New Task Force shows failure of NNPC, says David-West

ACTIVITIES in two critical ministries: Foreign Affairs and Petroleum Resources, yesterday came under the scrutiny of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

While the Senate endorsed the ongoing reforms in the oil sector, it declared that it was not in the interest of the nation for the Federal Government to keep spending scarce resources on unviable foreign missions.

Senate President David Mark stated this yesterday after the Upper Chambers confirmed 85 of the 88 ambassadorial nominees sent to it by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mark said it was time the missions were closed down to save the nation from the myriad of problems emerging from them.

He said: ‘’I don’t believe that Nigeria must keep all the embassies and high commissions abroad. Each time you travel, you are confronted with myriad of problems from some of the embassies and high commissions. The Committee on Foreign Affairs should take a critical look at the missions and recommend for closure those that are not viable.’’

Two nominees, Mrs. Sifawu Momoh from Edo State and Mr. Okafor Mathias Ojih were asked to re-appear before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs for a second screening. The committee, headed by Matthew Nwagu, said the lawmakers did not clear the nominees because they could not answer satisfactorily questions put to them.

The Senate also resolved that the widow of Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Bianca, who is one of the ambassadorial nominees, would be screened any time she finished with the burial ceremony of the Igbo leader.

Last December, Jonathan forwarded the list of the ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for screening.

Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) yesterday directed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to furnish it with details of its workers following the revelation that it planned to spend N30.399 billion on recurrent expenditure of its proposed budget of N35 billion for 2012.

The committee also discovered that the DPR had a workforce of 1,108 and intends to engage 250 additional workers.

The panel has, however, endorsed the action of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in raising a Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force aimed at ensuring probity and accountability in the oil sector.

The minister raised a panel on Tuesday with Malam Nuhu Ribadu, former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss, as chairman.

The chairman of the Senate panel, Magnus Abe, said the action of the minister would help to instil confidence among stakeholders.

The investigation of the management of petroleum products subsidy by the House of Representatives got closer to identifying the factors aiding corruption in the industry yesterday.

Some of the oil firms, which testified before the Lower House ad-hoc committee, admitted that they had no retail outlets to distribute the products to the consumers.

And many of those that had retail outlets had no storage facilities.

The panel’s chairman, Farouk Lawal, observed that Nigerian consumers were not fairly treated by the series of firms playing roles as middlemen.

“Worse still, there are some people who had neither storage facility nor retail outlets. They simply collect products and re-sell to other marketers,” Farouk said.

Members of the Depot And Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), which had been fingered by many stakeholders as causing the major problems in the distribution of products, told the committee that it had no hand in the shady deals in the industry.

DAPPMA Chairman, Sylvanus Okoli, said: “It is sad that all marketers, including DAPPMA members, have been labelled as criminals.”

Accused by the committee of encouraging the hike in the price of kerosene, Okoli said there are other layers of middlemen, who buy from DAPPMA to sell to consumers.

The committee expressed shock that after buying kerosene at N40.9 per litre, DAPPMA would sell at N75 per litre as admitted to by Okoli.

Another issue that came up at the hearing was that of refusal of many vessels bringing refined products to enter Nigerian territorial waters but stayed and sold out products some 52 nautical miles into the high sea.

The committee frowned at the practice, saying that the revenue due to Nigeria from these transactions were not paid to her because the transactions were taking place offshore Cotonou or offshore Lome.

A firm, Vitol, which sells products on the high sea to Nigerian importers, admitted that the high sea business attracted no duty or charges from any country since it happened in international waters.

Its Managing director, Rodney Garshon, was directed by the committee to produce the list of all firms it had transacted offshore business with particularly those importing into Nigeria.

Former Petroleum Minister, Prof. Tam David-West, has said the setting up of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force is a pointer that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) needs to be restructured urgently.

He argued that the Task Force, whose responsibility would be to enhance probity, transparency and accountability in the operations of the industry, cannot stem corruption if there is no complete overhaul of the NNPC, which he described as “bastion of corruption.”

David-West told The Guardian in Port Harcourt, Rivers State yesterday that by setting up the task force, Mrs. Alison-Madueke had indicted herself and the present administration for mismanagement of the sector.

“The NNPC needs to be restructured. NNPC is corrupt. The modus operandi for selling Nigerian oil has broken down. The law is that you cannot lift Nigerian oil except you have a refinery. We don’t sell crude to middlemen. Whosoever is going to lift oil must deposit three audited accounts of the company with NNPC for verification. Not so anymore, all you need nowadays is money and good connection to lift oil. It was not so and that is why NNPC must be overhauled,” David-West said.

-Guardian

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