SAN FRANCISCO, November 05, (THEWILL) – Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) on Tuesday alleged that a whopping amount of N500 billion is missing in the coffers of SURE-P.
The committee disclosed that the amount was part of the N800 billion that was realised between January 2012 and September 2013 from the 25 billion litres of petroleum sold by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) within the period.
Consequently, the panel threatened to recommend the scrapping of the programme.
It said the SURE-P has become a drain pipe of the nation’s treasury.
A member of the committee, Senator kabiru Marafa, (APC,Zamfara Central), disclosed the palpable fraud to journalists at the of the committee’s meeting.
He explained: “It was said that the subsidy regime was going to be N32 a litre and this committee wrote the NNPC to ascertain the quantity of fuel being imported from the time this subsidy programme started.
“NNPC replied the committee that from January, 2012 to December, 2013, which if you calculate, will give about 21 months. They gave a break-down of the quantity per month. When you put up everything, it comes to roughly about 25 billion litres per month.
“ Now, if you multiply 25 billion by 32, you get about N800 billion, and what SURE-P told us when we invited them was that they collected about N300 billion at N15 billion flat rate per month. So if you multiply 21 by 15 billion, you will get about N315 billion.
“So what we are talking about is the amount involved which is N500 billion; where is it? That is what we wanted NNPC to tell us. They are the ones importing the fuel, they are the custodian.
“I was surprised that CBN was not here because they are the custodian but if anything, if their top management was here, the question of how they came about the N15 billion they are remitting to SURE-P would have been asked. Since CBN is the custodian of the money, how did CBN come about remitting to SURE-P, then, we will be told.
“Maybe, CBN will tell us what NNPC is remitting to them; maybe NNPC will say no, we have been remitting this amount of money but CBN is remitting only N15 billion.
“So, they are remitting only N15 billion, then we will ask CBN how did it come about the N15 billion flat rate, because this thing can’t be a flat rate.
“ In January 2012, the nation consumed about 1.3 billion litres but if you look at February 2013,we consumed about 941 billion litres; so you can see that the remittances are supposed to be fluctuating but when SURE-P came, they told the committee that they have been receiving N15 billion monthly, so we asked, how did they come about it?”
The committee also frowned at the seeming lack of transparency and accountability in the management of the progromme, a development it said, was contrary to the original concept of SURE-P.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Abdul Ningi, decried the nonchalant attitude and lack of respect for constituted authority by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi , and the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu.
The trio, he complained, have severally snubbed the committee’s invitation to appear before it to give explain certain issues.
An obviously angry Senator Ningi, declared that; “Today again, we sat here glued to our seat for over one hour awaiting the arrival of the officials of the NNPC or their agents and the Central Bank or their agents.
“As we are speaking, we sent letters of invitation to both agencies which were duly acknowledged.
“I have been a member of the National Assembly right from inception and I have never seen this crass impunity and disregard of constituted authority. When we deliberated on the issue of the Minister of Works, I was expecting official reprimand from the presidency and now we have a repeat from the agents of the president
“I think what this tells us is that this SURE-P programme which seems to be for me a cardinal programme of this government is being undermined from the inside. I have no doubt in my mind that non-appearance today further confirms our fears and reservations of a lot of Nigerians on the secrecy of the implementation of the SURE -P programme and part of our mandate is to unbundle to open up the details of the implementation if the programme.
“We thought that NNPC is key to this programme and we wanted to compare notes with the CBN as to monies that accrue to this programme directly from the NNPC.
“Our intention was to make it plain to Nigerians that no one is hiding anything. When the Ministry of Works did not show up, we went to the Senate President and he assured us that he was taking the case personally to the president
“We are building evidences against those who are using SURE-P for anything and at the end of the day this programme must come to an end if that is what they want. The National Assembly will not continue to give legitimacy through appropriation to our collective inheritance where the three individuals who run it will not come to give account to the monies that accrue to this programme.
“We will not be provoked into not continuing with this job. Our job is to keep inviting them. We will not succumb to this unfortunate attitude because we are elected directly by the people and all of them are appointed by the president directly and are therefore, accountable to us and we are accountable to the people.
“This committee and indeed the Senate will use every legitimate opportunity in calling to order those who treat us with impunity and disdain,” he stated.
EMMA UCHE, ABUJA
