VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2012—7
MDAs not transparent in contract awards —BPP
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Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadomen (left); Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State (2nd right); Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State (2nd left) and Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State during the meeting of the National Economic Council at the Aso Chambers, State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.
Budget deficit: FG to cut domestic debts —NEC zGives FG, states ultimatum on Excess Crude Account suit BY BEN AGANDE
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BUJA — THE Federal Government, yesterday, indicated that it would cut domestic debts in order to ensure that the level of deficit in the nation’s budget is reduced significantly. Similarly, lawyers for the Federal Government and the 36 states of the federation have been given two weeks to finalise the positions of both parties on the Excess Crude Account to find a solution before the next National Economic Council, NEC, meeting. These were the highlights of the National Economic Council meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. The meeting which was presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo had in attendance some governors of the 36 states, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Minister of National Planning and Minister of State, Finance. Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting, Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, said: “A review of the present state of indebtedness and facilities by various international financial institutions such as the World Bank through the IDA window, ADB, Islamic Development Bank, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development and also the China EXIM Bank, was done. “We also discussed the borrowing plan going forward in the next three years. The Federal Ministry C M Y K
of Finance is going to provide the information of all the facilities that state government can access especially those under the IDA window and the state will now apply for whatever project it wants to finance with the funds and this will be articulated and a meeting will be called with the National Assembly for the defence of these facilities and after approval then, the state will access. “The Federal Ministry of Finance will also make separate presentation on the borrowing plan in the next NEC and this presentation will actually give a summary of the indebtedness between now and the next NEC with the Federal Ministry of Finance and various state governments on all the facilities that we need to borrow for th-e next three years. “On a policy level, we want to slow down on the domestic debts. In fact, we want to ensure that going forward, that the level of deficit in our budget is reduced significantly so that we don’t add on to the domestic debts. So, we are actually mindful of our debts level.”
Ultimatum to FG, states' counsel On the decision of the NEC for the Federal and state governments counsel to reach a settlement before the next meeting, CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the meeting agreed that the Ministry of Finance and the governors should sit and agree before
the next NEC meeting, though the date was not disclosed. According to Sanusi, “this solution is important because the Supreme
Court has given us till September 2 for an out-ofcourt settlement to be reached. If it is not reached then, the trial will continue."
No PIB in the Senate —Abaribe zAs Okadigbo, Ewuga take oath of office as Senators BY INALEGWU SHAIBU
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BUJA— CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Mr Enyinnaya Abaribe, has confirmed that the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, is not in the Senate. Abaribe who addressed journalists at the end of plenary, yesterday, stated that the Senate was yet to receive the PIB despite promises from President Goodluck Jonathan that the bill would arrive at the National Assembly in June. He said: “The Senate has been expecting the PIB from the Presidency. I think they said they are bringing it in June, up till this moment we still have not received the bill and of course any time the bill comes, we will treat the bill as due. Whatever version that comes from Mr. President is the version that is the proper PIB.” Meanwhile, the Senate, yesterday, administered oath of office on Senators Margery Okadigbo and Solomon Ewuga. Senator Ewuga, CPC,
Nasarawa North senatorial district replaced Senator Musa Nagogo, who was earlier issued certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. While Senator Okadigbo, PDP, Anambra North was sworn-in to occupy the Anambra North seat which has been vacant since the inception of the 7th Senate following the Supreme Court ruling which declared her as the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the April 2011 general election in the state. Abaribe after the swearing-in declared the feat as a milestone for a spouse of a former Senator to occupy the same seat as her husband. According to him, “today also mark a milestone when we have for the very first time the swearing in of the spouse of a former Senator. In our constitutional development, we have not seen this yet. “There has been children but they have not been a spouse in the Senate bearing the same name."
By JOSEPH ERUNKE
BUJA — THE Bureau for Public Procurement has flayed what it called ‘non adherence to Public Procurement Act’ by government ministries, departments and agencies, saying the development was adversely affecting Federal Government’s fight against corruption. The agency said it observed that most biddings and contract awards carried out by government’s ministries, department and agencies were without regard to due process. The agency’s Director, Research and Planning, Mr Anthony Ikor, disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja at the opening of a two-day procurement capacity workshop organised by the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, in collaboration with the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP. He said despite sensitisation campaigns the BPP had carried out on Ministries, Departments
and Agencies, MDAs, there was still non adherence to Public Procurement Acts, saying unless there was a change of attitude, government’s crusade on fight against corruption would be effort in futility. Ikor, who was also one of the resource persons at the two-day event, reminded participants that the agency had the right not only to enforce the Act but prosecute offenders, disclosing that archival records were going to be opened for participants. This, he said, was because “we have observed that most agencies, after training, abandoned what they were taught.” Declaring the occasion open, Director-General, National Directorate of Employment, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, said the development informed his leadership to collaborate with the BPP for the workshop to keep his staff abreast with the need to carry out their statutory functions in accordance with the laid-down role.
FG realised over N101bn from NITEL —BPE D-G BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE
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BUJA — THE Federal Government has realised over N101 billion from the Nigeria Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n Limited, NITEL, which has been in coma for a long time. This was disclosed, yesterday, by Bolanle Onagoruwa, Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, at the opening of a two-day investigative hearing on the activities of Mtel/NITEL’s management board, status of its investment as well as revenue generation from ongoing services rendered to other telecommunication companies in Nigeria held by the House Joint Committee on privatisation, finance, communications, public procurement and information technology. The BPE boss noted that National Council on Privatisation, NCP, is favourably disposed to adopting "guided liquidation" against the injection of $1 billion for the re-activation of the two telecoms companies as alternatives. In her presentation, Onagoruwa argued that the debt profile of the public parastatal stood at N354
billion. But IIlyasu-Sa’ab put the total debt profile at N182 billion of which NITEL owed N79 billion while Mtel owed N103 billion. She disclosed that $3,668,561.70 was generated from Sat-3 submarine cable, $2,855,091.81 remitted in the domiciliary account, $521,990 generated from British Telecoms, $290,230 from cable and wireless services while $1,249.84 was realised from interest. According to her, the companies liabilities include N65,227,595,681 on equipment vendors; N81,711,196,994 on bank claims; N183,403,439,256 for government agencies and N24,504,836,126 for others. She added that Federal Government raised N68,248,884,000 through Debt Management Office, DMO, to offset outstanding salaries totalling N54.2 billion, leaving a debt profile at N122,448,884,000 with Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON. While reacting, Khadijat Ibrahim, chairperson of the committee and her colleagues in the joint committee queried BPE over the N172 billion differential in the debt profile compiled by both parties.