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Nigeria’s House of Representatives has begun legislative scrutiny of the total sum of N1.860 trillion allegedly spent by the executive arm of government on fuel subsidy and arms procurement by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
A breakdown of the fund allegedly spent with appropriation include: N1.4 trillion paid for under recovery subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS) and N460 million recently paid to US firms for arms procurement.
The resolutions were passed during the debate on motion of privilege sponsored by Sunday Karimi (PDP-Kogi) and Toby Okechukwu (PDP-Enugu).
Karimi, who drew the attention of the House to the motion which he sponsored last week, frowned at the failure of the Joint Committee on Finance and Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to carry out the investigative hearing into the allegations.
He observed that the Minister of State for Finance recently affirmed that that over N1.4 trillion has been expended on under recovery without appropriation to the Parliament.
Karimi who accused the Executive of circumventing the extant laws on appropriation, argued that “any spending without the approval of the Parliament is unconstitutional. We can’t sit here without asking any question.”
Asked to report on the status of the investigative hearing, Ibrahim Babangida, chairman, House Committee on Finance, explained that the joint Committee has started engaging the MDAs and fixed 26th April, 2018 for public hearing.
Toby Okechukwu (PDP-Enugu) who came on matter of privilege, noted that the collective privilege of members has been breached by the Executive over the payment of N460 million to US firms for the procurement of arms without appropriation as provided for in section 80 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as well as the provisions of the Legislative and Privileges Act, which gave the Parliament the powers to make legislations and economic powers to make Appropriation law.
He noted that such spending should be in line with the prescription of the National Assembly.
Okechukwu who argued that the Federal Government has usurped the powers of Parliament, called for the intervention of the House in order to ensure value for money.
In his intervention, Femi Gbajabiamila, Majority Leader, who acknowledged the intent of the motion, noted that the motion should come under matters of urgent national importance, rather than privileges, as cited by Okechukwu.
Speaking further, Okechukwu noted that without appropriation, it would be difficult to ensure value for money on any form of transaction funded by public resources.
“We have to look into this and verify the veracity of the payment and why the breach of the extant laws, as well as the breaches,” he stressed.
In ruling, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who noted that these allegations are “very very serious issues, and if it is discovered to have been drawn from the purse, it can be regarded as stealing really.”
To this end, Dogara resolved to refer the motion to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges, chaired by Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP-Delta) for further legislative action.
