|
|
Nigeria: Obasanjo, Okonjo-Iweala Took Loan From Excess Crude Account - Tukur
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Leadership (Abuja)
21 March 2008
Posted to the web 21 March 2008
Philip Nyam
Abuja
Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Engr. Hamman Tukur, yesterday disclosed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his finance minister, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, took a loan out of the excess crude money in the Federation Account to finance the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) just as he said the administration compelled contractors to pay one percent commission either in local or foreign currency to some anonymous persons on every contract awarded under the NIPP.
Although the finance minister, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, described the loan as semi-legal, he explained that the one percent commission on NIPP contracts is the statutory fee charged on all foreign transactions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Meanwhile, chairman of the probe panel, Hon. Ndudi Godwin Elumelu, yesterday declared that the committee will not hesitate to summon former president Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar, if the need arose in the course of compiling their report. He stated this in his closing remarks at the end of the sitting.
Tukur, who testified on the final day of the House Committee on Power and Steel's public hearing on the $16 billion allegedly spent by the previous administration on the power sector, said it was when the commission insisted that the executive must operate in line with the laid down laws before money belonging to the three tiers of government could be used for any project that the former minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, wrote the National Assembly seeking approval to use part of the excess crude money in the Federation Account as loan to finance the NIPP projects.
The RMAFC chairman said he was not sure whether the National Assembly granted such request, but that the commission decided to go to court seeking interpretation of what the law said about a sitting president taking loans from the federation account.
"Our worry was that our elected body, the National Assembly was informed, but we don't know if such approval was given. We were still waiting for the court decision when funding was transformed to the funding of NIPP projects," he added.
He said by RMAFC's records, a total of $3.9 billion was taken from the Excess Crude Account for the purpose of the power sector, which he said contradicted the figures quoted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF).
He attributed the differences in the figure quoted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the accountant general of the federation (AGF) to the payment of the commission.
The RMAFC chairman told the panel that he raised alarm when it was discovered that the money was being taken under a strange sub-head, which unfortunately led to a confrontation between the executive and the commission in their desperate effort to give legitimacy to their action.
"First, they called it Niger Delta Power Holding Company when we drew the attention to this development that it was wrong, they quickly changed it to NNPC Joint Venture and Gas Account and $213 million was withdrawn on 28 December, 2005. Because of our persistence that this withdrawal was illegal, the name changed to funding of NIPP projects," he narrated.
When funds were being taken away to finance NIPP projects under Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Tukur said that the commission demanded for documents showing the amount committed as a holding company by the owners, which he confirmed was never produced.
On the one percent commission on NIPP projects, Tukur said it was just a tip of the iceberg on the innumerable illegalities committed by Obasanjo and his financial administrators in the management of the federation account.
"Our greatest worry is that we do not know who got the commission and where it was paid to".
"On 6 March, 2005, the sum of $209 million was paid as commission, a week later, $249 million was paid, April 3rd, 2005, $44 million was paid. This was going on whereas we keep on asking questions, but there was no answer.
"This was why we set up an ad-hoc committee to check if these projects were actually in place. One of such committees was headed by Ambassador Kabiru Rabiu, who is present in the hall," he said.
|
Tukur also told the committee that it was the CBN that was keeping the accounts of NIPP, while payment was made on instruction of the minister of finance through the office of the accountant general of the federation.
He accused the CBN of flouting the order of President Umaru Yar'Adua that payment on NIPP projects should stop by June 2007, saying that as at December 2007, some contractors were still being paid.
The minister of finance, Shamsudeen Usman, while testifying, however, explained that the loans from the federation account were semi-legal loans taken by Okonjo-Iweala for the NIPP projects. He said that government was forced to take the loans because some states actually refused to continue with the projects.
|
I must confess sincerely that a few nigerian politicians have emerged with strange words which does not quite exist in the professional dictionaries nor in academical achives, a desperate demostration and egarness to consil either acts of corruption , theft or / and missapropriation of public fund , even theft.
In all my entire life as an accoutant and a financial expert , i have never heared of the word ``SEMI- LEGAL``But in terestingly after reading your article, behold it was been used boldly by a well respected Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal... [Read Full Text]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
