Business
NASS Cautions Against Spending Without Approval
The Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) has warned agencies to desist from spending money without the approval of the National Assembly.
The committee gave the warning on Tuesday in Abuja when agencies under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources appeared before it to defend their 2013 budget estimates.
The chairman of the Senate Committee, Sen. Magnus Abe, said it was wrong for the agencies to assume that only appropriations drawn directly from the Consolidated Revenue Fund should get the National Assembly’s approval.
“What I want to bring to our attention is the attitude of some of our operators in the sector who always think that except appropriations are drawn directly from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, they are not accountable to parliament for it.
“I want to make it very, very clear that except the money that you get is from selling your father’s farm or your grandfather’s farm, every money must be approved by the National Assembly.
“So nobody can receive money on behalf of the Nigerian people, spend it on his own behalf without reference to the National Assembly,”he emphasised.
Abe said he was referring particularly to agencies that were allowed by law to generate revenue and make their own expenditure.
“All those expenditures that are not drawn directly on the national budget must also come here and be approved by parliament.
“Except it is approved, nobody should spend any money or disburse any fund that is not pre-approved by the parliament,’’ he said.
On his part, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee, Rep. Dakuku Peterside (PDP-Rivers), said the National Assembly was scrutinising the budget to ensure that Nigerians were protected.
“We should not assume that budget is a yearly ritual, it is certainly not a yearly ritual.
“We take up this exercise to ensure that the interest of the Nigerian people is protected in the budgetary process and our resources are applied in the areas where they are truly needed,” Peterside said.
The Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr Reginald Stanley, who had earlier presented the budget performance of the agency for 2012, failed to provide documentation on the agency’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Stanley told the joint committee that the IGR was the administrative cost on petroluem products which was charged at 15k per litre.
The committee, therefore, asked him to come back on Wednesday with accurate figures on how much had been generated.
The Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), Mrs Sharon Kasali, was also asked to come back on Wednesday for the same reason.