…As Reps summon Adeosun, Ngige, Udoma over non-remittance of NSITF contributions***
The Senate Committee on Power has queried the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Mustapha Baba Shehuri and the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Louis Edozien, over alleged duplication of items in the 2018 budget estimates of the Power ministry.
In the details of the ministry’s next year’s budget, which were made available during yesterday’s budget defence, N120 million, N480 million and N288 million, respectively, were allocated for the purchase of utility vehicles by the Power ministry.
The ministry also voted N100 million for transfer and management of office files and documents. Lawmakers complained about the ministry’s penchant for repetition of projects.
They said every year, the ministry presents the same items in its budget and asks for more funds to execute the same projects.
Trouble started when Senator Clifford Ordia, who represents Edo Central senatorial district, queried duplication of purchase of utility vehicles, captured in three separate pages of the ministry’s budget.
He also instructed the minister of state and the permanent secretary to explain how the ministry plans to spend N100 million to transfer files, in spite of another huge provision for ICT.
“I need to understand this thing. Look at the marked N120 million, N288 million and N480 million for the purchase of vehicles. I do not understand. Are these vehicles different? If you add up this figure, it gives you about N888 million.
“You also said you want to spend N100 million on transfer of office files. How do you intend to do that? The people in your office, what have they been doing? I can also see, from your estimates here, that you captured another item for ICT, different from the N100 million for transfer of files. You need to explain these things,” Ordia said.
Senator Hassan Mohammed from Yobe State said lawmakers are tired of being bombarded every year with the same line items in the budget. He urged the Ministry to put its house in order.
Committee Chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who presided over the budget defence, revealed that the ministry’s 2017 capital budget only recorded 18 per cent performance.
“We will take it that the 2017 budget was abysmally low, at only 18 per cent performance. This is unacceptable and I need to put it on record,” said Abaribe.
There was mild drama when Shehuri could not respond to questions posed to him by the committee members. Instead, he appealed to them to allow Edozien provide answers on his behalf.
His appeal was rejected by lawmakers.
“You were sent here to represent the minister. It means you are here to respond to our questions. Last week, we invited the permanent secretary to respond. Today (yesterday), it is your turn.
“My colleagues asked me how come you are the person here and not Fashola? But, I told them since you are also a minister, you could be here too, on behalf of your minister,” Abaribe told Shehuri.
Meanwhile, the substantive Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, did not show up for yesterday’s budget defence.
There was no official explanation from Fashola on why he did not turn up. Instead, Shehuri said Fashola was attending to other state matters.
Last Thursday, senators walked out Fashola, over alleged “unpreparedness to face the committee for his 2018 budget defence.”
The Abaribe-led committee maintained that Fashola was not ready to face members since he did appear before them, with necessary documentation.
Abaribe also added that the committee should have been furnished with necessary documentation, to enable members peruse them while the defence would be ongoing.
But, speaking on Fashola’s non-appearance, yesterday, Abaribe said: “Maybe Fashola decided to snub us because of some media reports last week. But, he ought not to have been angry by that. I am sure that was why he sent you because he did not want to come here.
“I said it was deliberate that Fashola did not show up. What we need to scrutinise the budget was not provided. We needed some things to make the process easy. Nobody is satisfied with these vague items. We are going to have to adjourn this meeting, pending when we will get these submissions from you.”
He told the Shehuri and Edozien to inform Fashola that he must present himself at the next scheduled budget defence session.
“We are asking you to inform the minister to be here, to properly respond to all the questions we need to ask. We will do a comprehensive letter asking for explanations on items where we have raised questions. That will guide you in giving your submissions. We need you to be prepared when next you come,” the committee chairman said.
The minister of state and other officials of the ministry, were then told to go back and return prepared for another session.
In the meantime, Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun will appear before a House of Representatives’ ad hoc panel investigating Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of governments and private sector over non-remittance of their contributions to the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS).
As stipulated by the Employees’ Compensation Act, 2010, all MDAs at Federal, State and Local government (LG) levels are expected to register and contribute one per cent of their gross income to the scheme.
The scheme, domiciled in the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), is to encourage safety in workplace and provides compensation for death, occupational diseases and injuries, reduce personal, physical and emotional suffering of employees and their relatives as well as minimises bureaucracy and bottlenecks in determining liabilities.
Minister of Labour and Productivity Chris Ngige, his Budget and National Planning counterpart, Udo Udoma as well as the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze and the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, were also expected to appear before the Deputy Minority Leader Chukwuka Onyema – led ad hoc panel today.
They were to explain why the Federal Government is owing NSITF N17 billion since 2015 with the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) owing N16.2 billion since 2010 and several other MDAs.
They were also expected to give detailed account of registered MDAs, total amount budgeted on yearly basis as well as shed light on exemptions from the scheme.
In his presentation, NSITF’s Director General (DG), Adebayo Somefun, who has no idea of the total workforce of his agency, said only Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe states have registered but without commitments.
The rest, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the 774 councils, have not.
In contravention of the law, the DG said most MDAs have refused to register for the scheme, in spite of the fact that no agency was exempted except uniformed military personnel.
He said civilians working in the military establishments were also expected to participate.
He said contribution to the scheme was supposed to be deducted from source by the Ministry of Finance and the AGF.
Somefun could not however provide the committee with the actual figure owed by individual MDAs, complaining that non-registration by recalcitrant organisations made reconciliation difficult for NSITF.
Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris said the police was elated when the scheme was introduced but could not understand why the Police was excluded.
Idris, who was represented by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), (Insurance), Ishaku Mohammed, said the AGF was formally contacted in 2014 since the contribution was expected to be deducted from source which has not been the case with the Police.
He said the Budget Office responded in another correspondence that the NPF is excluded from the scheme and should not pay but can approach the NSITF for enrolment.
“We did but NSITF did not ask us for payment, rather a consultant was appointed to work with us and by 2016, a figure of N13 billion was given to us and we were asked to approach the Federal Government for the payment or reimbursement but nothing has happened till now,” he added.
Though the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) claimed that its establishment Act prevented it from contributing to the scheme, it nonetheless promised to work with NSITF on how to reconcile the records.
NSITF was discovered to have defaulted on payment and mandated to pay its own contributions of N394 million to the scheme.
The committee expressed its dissatisfaction with NSITF for not carrying out enough public awareness on the scheme, citing non-activity from state and local governments.
Committee Chairman Onyema said: “Government at all levels should be aware that failure to register and pay the statutory contributions to the NSITF is a gross violation of the law.
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