Subsidy: Senate to quiz Okonjo-Iweala, KPMG, CBN, others

Posted by admin Legislature, Senate, Women Politics Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The Senate Joint Committee investigating the administration of fuel subsidy in the country has invited the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the Accountant General of the Federation; the Central Bank of Nigeria; and an audit firm, KPMG for questioning.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Magnus Abe, said the meeting with the invited persons and agencies would hold on Wednesday and Thursday next week, where pending issues would be straightened out.

He said regular agencies, such as the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited and the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency would also be in attendance at the meeting.

Also to appear before the committee are the Nigerian Ports Authority, Capital Oil and Gas, Oando, MRS and Folawiyo Petroleum.

Abe said although the submission of the report was listed on the Notice Paper for Thursday (today), the committee would ask for more time if it was invited to do so.

He said, “The committee met and has set aside Wednesday and Thursday next week to re-invite some key organisations and personalities with whom we have issues so that we can clarify those issues with them.

“As soon as we finish that, we will be getting our report ready. What we want to do is to make sure that as much as possible; the report is based on facts and only facts, and would not be speculative in any sense.”

Reacting to the submission of the House of Representatives’ subsidy probe report to the Senate, Abe argued that that action did not in any way reduce the value of his committee’s investigation.

He said, “The Senate had earlier set up its own committee, which was made up of committees on Appropriation, Finance and Petroleum (Downstream) to conduct this investigation. The House of Representatives, within its own constitutional right, conducted the same investigation and they (members) have finished, they have submitted their report and all.

“That does not anyway interfere with the constitutional right of the Senate to conclude its own investigation and reach its own conclusion as may be appropriate. So, the Senate committee investigating the fuel subsidy is still working.”

On what the outcome of the committee’s work would be when compared with that of the House, Abe said he believed there would be difference in conclusions.

He said, “There definitely will be differences. I should assume so, because any group of people looking at a thing may not see everything exactly the same way and I don’t know what the mandate of the House of Representatives was, but the mandate of the Senate requires that we look specifically at certain things and reach certain conclusions on those things.

“In that respect, I don’t think there is any way the reports will be exactly the same. But substantially, we are looking at the same issue and we will see how it goes.”wp_posts