The House of Representatives on Monday unveiled plans to investigate the disbursement of the N22 billion accrued into the coffer of National Automotive Designated and Development Council (NADDC) since November 1994 till date.
According to the documents presented to the House Committee on Industry seen by BusinessDay, out of the N22 billion collected as the levy between November 1994 and May 2007 and deposited at an account at Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“In May 2007, government stopped the levy collection. However it has been reinstated in this NADDC Act. Government utilised N7.555 billion of the fund as follows: N3.725 billion loaned to former NAFCON in 2000; N3.83 billion used for the vehicle loan scheme for military and paramilitary organisations in 2006/7.”
However in 2003, the President approved the transfer of the fund to Bank of Industry through a managed fund agreement, which led to the transfer of the fund to BoI in 2004.
While giving update on the status of the fund, Aminu Jalal, NADDC Director General disclosed that the sum of N8.217 billion balance was domiciled with BoI as at March 2016 including the risk assets (loans).
Out of the total sum of N12.5 billion disbursed to 35 operators (undisclosed identity) in the automotive industry, about N6 billion has so far been repaid, while applications of 11 companies worth N7.3 billion is being processed.
According to him, from the total sum of N2.355 billion revenue accrued into the NADDC coffer in 2016, the sum of N9.8 billion balance brought forward from 2015 was domiciled with the Accountant General of the Federation, N602.685 million NAC managed fund; N26.5 million recovered from Housing Loan while N1.181,588,156.25 was accrued from 2 percent and 35 percent.
Council also send them to training on practicals in automotive companies and support them with training allowances while others are trained in the Councils office in Zaria.
On the 2017 budget, Jalal told the committee that the council proposed N1.701 billon as recurrent expenditure, N3.05 billion as Capital Expenditure and N187.87 million and overhead while total revenue expectation was N5.49 billion.
He added that some of the machines ordered by the council have arrived at the ports and they have applied to the Ministry of Finance for waiver but yet to get response.
The document further stated that the sum of N10 billion will be set aside for Nigerian Vehicle Credit Purchase (finance scheme).
The lawmakers who spoke during the budget defence of NADDC including Sunday Karimi, Zephaniah Jisalo, expressed displeasure over the utilisation of funds accrued into the account as well as the sum of N200 million spent on Staff training, N30 million spent on National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and SIWES in the 2016 fiscal year.
In his remarks, Abubakar Moriki, chairman, House Committee on Industry who expressed displeasure over the Council’s inability to provide details of their expenditure, noted that automotive industry which enjoys the backward integration policy of Federal Government targeted at growing the automotive sector should enjoy free tariff or waiver from the Minister of Finance.
He however chided the Council for failing to apply for waiver on time, stressing that the Council should not wait until the goods have arrived at the Port in order to avoid payment of demurrage.
Moriki expressed concern that the outstanding N9.8 billion of 2016 Appropriation might be unspent before the end of the fiscal year as projects for which they were set aside were not ready.
To this end, the Committee demanded for details of the beneficiaries of the fund, just as it stepped down further consideration of the budget.
