THE NATION TUESDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2013
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NEWS
‘Missing’ N
•From left: Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Dr. Demola Sogunle, Head, Business Development, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Mrs. Nike Bajomo; Principal Partner, StarBright Consulting Ltd, Mr. Emmanuel Olu-Ayeni; Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Trustees, Mrs. Binta Max-Gbinije and Executive Director, Operations, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Mr. Steve Elusope at a pre-retirement seminar organised by Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited in Lagos. PHOTO: BOLA OMILABU
Who owns SURE-P? That is the question raised following the claim by the Senate that N500 billion SURE-P fund was missing. The Minister of Finance, Budget Office and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have all washed their hands of the programme initiated to utilise savings from the partial removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in 2012. NDUKA CHIEJINA reports.
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•From left: Managing Director, Marteks Nigeria Limited, Mr. Yinka George, Director, Anthill Investement Ltd., Mr. Olamikeka Asa Afariogun, Marketing Manager, Cococa Processing Company Limited, Genevieve Pawar and Director, Golden Tree Cocoa Processing Company Limited, Mr. Frank Asante during the Golden Tree Ghana Media Interactive Forum in Lagos. PHOTO: ABIODUN WILLIAMS
•From left: Managing Director, Fedex Red Star Express, Mr Sule Umar; Consultant, People First Consulting and Services Ltd, Ms Ejine Nzeribe; CEO, Stanbic IBTC Trustees, Ms Binta Max-Gbinije, Executive Director, Red Star Express, Muyiwa Olumekun and the Star Prize Winner, Mr. Ademola Adepegba, at the Fedex Red Star Customers Forum at Eko Hotel, Lagos.
•From Left: Chief Executive Officer, MobileContent.Com, John Totoe; Analyst, Data & Mobile Device Unit, Etisalat Nigeria, Chike Agomoh; Chief Operations Officer, Beyond Branches International, Simon Aderinola; and Director, Nigeria App Summit, Osa Umweni at the inaugural edition of the Nigeria App Summit 2013 in Lagos.
NE of the agenda of the Federal Government is the progressive deregulation of the petroleum industry, which gave birth to the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). It was established January last year by President Goodluck Jonathan after the subsidy from Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) was partially removed. The Occupy Nigeria protest took centre stage to protest the hike in pump price of fuel from N65 to over N141, before it was reduced to N97, after negotiation between the Organised Labour and the Federal Government. The SURE-P was set up as an interventionist committee to manage the proceeds from fuel subsidy removal. It is funded with the difference or the savings which would have used to subsidise PMS had there been full subsidy for the product. By implication, the difference between N65 per litre cost of PMS as full subsidy and N97 the price of PMS from partial withdrawal of subsidy is what the government uses to fund SURE-P. The money thus saved is shared among the three tiers of government. In order to ensure the proper management of the funds that would accrue to the Federal Government from the partial withdrawal of subsidy, the government decided to inaugurate a committee for the purpose. Accordingly, the President set up the SURE-P Committee, with Dr. Christopher Kolade as Chairman. The mandate from the President to the SURE-P Committee is to ‘deliver service with integrity’ and ‘restore people’s confidence in the government’. The terms of reference are as follows: Determine in liaison with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the subsidy savings estimates for each preceding month and ensure that such funds are transferred to the Funds’ Special Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria; approve the annual work plans and cash budgets of the various Project Implementation Units (PlUs) within the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and ensure orderly disbursement of funds by the PlUs in order to certify and execute projects; monitor and evaluate execution of the funded projects, including periodic Poverty and Social lmpact Analysis (PSIA); update the President regularly on the programme; Periodically brief the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the progress of the programme; appoint Consulting firms with international reputation to provide technical assistance to the Committee in financial and project management; appoint external auditors for the fund; and do such other things as are necessary or incidental to the objectives of the Fund or as maybe assigned by the Federal Government. The Committee is supported by a
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Secretariat that will also be responsible for communication and press briefings. Fund Management SURE-P, in carrying out the set mandate of reinvesting the Federal Government’s share, established a fund management structure. In the structure, the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation (DirectorGeneral, Budget Office) is designated as the Accounting officer for all SUREP activities. The Account of the programme is, therefore, domiciled in the Office of the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation. After the Committee has approved payments for projects, the Chairman signs the approval, then the DG Budget Office, as Accounting Officer, processes the approvals, after which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) makes payments directly to beneficiaries. Programme Structure In line with the adopted operational structure, individual projects are managed by Project Implementation Units (PIUs) that are located within Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Projects and programmes oversight are managed by the SUREP Committee working through its steering committee and seven subcommittees. This aspect of the SUREP programme structure has been described as drain pipe of public funds as it is seen as a duplication of the duties and functions of MDAs with regards to project management. The subcommittees are extensions of the committee to provide direct supervision to the projects. The Committee also has a Secretariat that provides technical and administrative support to both the Committee and its subcommittees, and provides information to stakeholders and the general public. By the end of November 2012, N62, 423,351,736.58 had been expended on capital projects; N325,525,292.27 went into the committee’s running cost (secretariat services). The expenditure summary shows that maternal child health by federal ministry of health gulped N3,803,152,276.13; public works by FERMA used N4,000,000,000.00; mass transit by infrastructure bank, went away with N8,900,000,000.00; East-West Road by ministry of Niger Delta equally gulped N 8 , 1 4 8 , 8 5 5 , 1 3 4 . 0 4 ; N28,296,238,063.10 was spent by federal ministry of Works on roads and bridges; Railway by federal ministry of Transport received N9,275,106,263.31 and N325,525,292.27 was spent on Secretariat services by SURE-P, bringing the total to N62,748,877,038.85. In 2014, N273.14 billion has been budgeted for extra capital under the SURE-P scheme to further comple-