ABUJA – Senate of the Federal Republic and the Federal Ministry of Finance are currently engaged in superiority battle over disclosure of May 2015 allocations from the Federation Accounts.
This is even as the Senate President Bukola Saraki directed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to retrieve N30 billion allegedly frittered away through waivers on taxes and duties on rice.
In a letter written yesterday, on behalf of the Senate Leadership to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Anastasia Mabi Daniel-Nwaobia, the Clerk of the National Assembly condemned refusal of the PS to appear before it on the breakdown of May 2015 Federal Account Allocation.
The Senate leadership had through a letter of June 29, 2015, requested the Permanent Secretary to appear before them on 08/07/15 (yesterday) along with heads of other relevant agencies on the same issue.
However, the PS was said to have sent a text message via gsm to the SP’s Chief of Staff, Sen. Isa Galaudu, indicating her inability to attend the meeting.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, in a letter dated July 8, 2015, and addressed to the Permanent Secretary, drew her attention to the implication of her refusal to honour the invitation, stating:
“Your action is a deliberate violation of the provisions of the Section 67(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended”.
Maikasuwa’s letter therefore insisted that the Permanent Secretary appear unfailingly before the Senate Leadership at 2pm prompt, same day.
“Re: Invitation For A Briefing. I refer to our letter Ref. No: NASS/S/SP/COS/CORRP/15/1/06 of June 29, 2015 on the above subject matter and your text message of July 7, 2015 to the Chief of Staff to the Senate President, signifying your inability to honour the invitation.
Your action is a deliberate violation of the provisions of the Section 67(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
You are therefore requested to appear before the Senate Leadership as contained in our aforementioned letter on Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 2 pm prompt”, the Clerk’s letter read.
Also in a separate letter, dated 08/07/2015, to the PS, the Chief of Staff to the President of the Senate, Sen. Isa Galaudu described her refusal to honour the invitation to a briefing as unacceptable, and an affront to the President of the Senate and its leadership.
“Please note that your test message of yesterday, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, which I received by hours of 20:02pm suggesting that you would not make today’s meeting is unacceptable.
This is an affront to the President of the Senate and its leadership. The provision of Section 67(2) of the1999 Constitution (as amended), is very clear and unambiguous in this regard, hence, you do not need the permission of any official before you attend or appear before the Senate.
Consequently, I have the instructions of the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and leadership that you do appear before them on the date and time earlier communicated to you, Wednesday, July 8, 2015 by 11 am prompt. It is my belief that you will comply unconditionally”, the Sen. Galaudu letter read.
However, the Permanent Secretary and her team were said to. Have been absent at yesterday sitting of the Senate leadership, an act that is said to have unsettled the senators.
On the retrieval of the alleged fraudulent waivers on rice and other agricultural products, Senate President Saraki urged the CBN governor to “go and collaborate with customs to ensure that this N30bn come back to the government coffers, so that we will be seen to be doing things to make this policy successful”.
“We must also show the big signals in things that we bring out the success of this policy, for example, you brought to our notice, the issue of the waivers on taxes and duties especially on rice which is about N30bn that were granted to certain companies, this money must be payed back to the federal government”, he stressed.
“It is our belief, particularly that the recent policy you have taken on some selected items, particularly key ones that have to do with agricultural products like rice, chicken, palm oil, and even in the areas of textiles.
Our policy is that we, after listening to you, believe that they are steps taken in the right direction to try to help our economy in the area of import and export substitution; but one of the observations we also made was that the Central Bank alone cannot make it all work in this area.
We have mentioned this to the governor of Central Bank. It will be our resolve too after we resume to get the Nigerian Customs act on this. Even before that, we cannot be taking some of these top positions while some people will get away… and will not pay what they are supposed to pay what they should return to government.
Second, is the issue of smuggling, because no matter how good, this policy on import substitution looks, if smuggling can still be going on the way it is now, this policy will not be successful.
That area as well, especially the big smugglers that are well known, it is time that this action is taken to stop it.
Thirdly, is about all other items too that fall under agriculture that we can produce locally, must be reviewed. We also stressed the need to also continue to work closely with the CBN by meeting regularly to review the policy so that we can look at the effectiveness of the policy.
The key issue is also, fiscal discipline, we can not de emphasise on it. The CBN must know those agencies of government that had in the past, not sending revenue straight to the consolidated revenue purse and you must play a role in ensuring that this is done because a lot of agencies are used to this act of impunity and it is the time that we must play a role that these agencies bring the money back.
We have seen that there is a slight increase in the amount in the foreign reserves due to that level of fiscal discipline and this must be sustained. Also, there must also be a participation of other organs like the Ministry of agriculture, trade and investment because the CBN alone cannot push this without the cooperation of other organs.
The senate will offer all the cooperation that is required and we have also asked you to let us know if there are specicific areas ohatf legislation that you need support for, you let us know them.
By and large, the key issues are that we must diversify our economy because that is the policy of President Muhammadu Buhari it is key and all the issues we have raised are moving in that direction and we must bring confidence to our partners and investors that want to come in here.
This is our own country and we must really begin to look at how finally, we can start begin to produce our own agricultural products and begin to talk of mining as well. We are better educated and we will go back to our constituencies where we have a lot of farmers. It is time jiw, that the revenue are not there for us to share among the the three tiers”, the SP told the CBN team in a meeting.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele explained, “we briefed the Senate extensively on all the actions we have taken, and other things that we are going to do to continue to strengthen Nigerian economy, make it possible for our people to create jobs for our people”.
“We are saying if we cannot employ people, what action are we going to take to ensure those who have entrepreneurial skills create jobs for themselves and for other people.
Following the drop in crude prices as high as 45%, and the fact that we had to depreciate our currency from N155 to N197, we also had to take certain decisions, to ensure that we keep our reserve still looking good.
With those singular efforts and strong determination, we have seen our foreign reserves moving $29bn when his Excellency took office on the 29th of May to $31.89bn”, he continue.
