Fifty oil marketers fraudulently collected N232 billion from the Federal Government as fuel subsidy, Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said yesterday.
The government has recovered only N29 billion through debt swap, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, added.
She spoke at the 18th Nigerian Economic Summit meeting in Abuja.
According to her, a forensic investigation carried out by the government revealed the subsidy fraud.
According to her, the government engaged 20 forensic experts, examiners and auditors from PriceWaterHouse Coopers and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and they have worked for more than four months on the subsidy claims.
“Last week, the work was submitted to Mr. President and of the amount verified, they have determined N232 billion. You know they came out with N270 billion initially; now they are out with N232 billion claims of oil subsidy that are not substantiated or fraudulent.”
She said on the strength of the forensic investigation, the government has started to recover the claims from the affected marketers.
She vowed that the government would recover the cash fraudulently obtained through subsidy claims.
Okonjo-Iweala regretted that the forensic investigation and the government’s resolve to hold indicted marketers to account have slowed down the oil importation programme.
She, however, stressed that government has continued to pay genuine subsidy claims to petroleum marketers.
“We are going through forensic investigation because it is the kind of work that requires indepth investigation and that is because we want to do a thorough job on the matter because Nigerians want government to take corruption out of the way so that we can be like other nations of the world where things are done properly,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said.
The presidential task force headed by Access Bank Managing Director Aigboje Aig-Imoukuede and the National Assembly probe have verified slightly more than N3 trillion , but government decided to subject the reports to forensic examinations.
At a news conference, also in Abuja yesterday, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said the government had released N170 billion as cash backing for the fourth quarter of Budget 2012.
“On the issue of cash backing for the fourth quarter; as you know, we released N300 billion last quarter for a total of N1.01 trillion in releases and it was said that we have not cash-backed the fourth quarter
“This is not correct; we have cash-backed N170bn of the fourth quarter release. About N111billion of that has gone straight into the accounts of Ministries, Department and Agencies as cash.”
According to the minister, a balance of N59 billion will service Authorisations to Incur Expenditure (AIEs).
She said as at the end of October, 71 per cent had been utilised; 20 per cent is yet to be utilised.
“So, we believe that before the end of the year, it will be utilised by the MDAs.
“We also want to be careful not to just release funds anyhow, until we are sure of what they are being used for.
“We have also released N44 billion to the Federal Ministry of Works in order to enable it work on the major damaged roads ahead of the Christmas season.”
On the police pension, she said a letter had been sent to ensure that payments were continuously made to police pensioners.
“To make sure that police pensioners are paid, we handed over the management of the account to the Accountant General of the Federation and he has been effecting payment to pensioners.
“And he has restructured the nine accounts to four; he is managing them while the restructuring of the police pension outfit goes on.’’
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, gave the assurance that a transparent police pension office capable of managing resources effectively, would be put in place.
She reiterated the call for the sack of 50 per cent of public servants to prune down the cost of governance.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said the truth must be told that some redundant civil servants must be sacked to pave the way for good governance and to cut cost.
Reacting to a question by one of the panellists at the National Economic Summit on what the government was doing to reduce the cost of governance, the minister said those calling for the reduction in the recurrent expenditure were invariably calling for the reduction in the work force in the civil service.
She said it was contradictory for the public to “call for the head” of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, when he was recently according to the CBN, misquoted for calling for the sack of 50 per cent of the government workforce, arguing that the only way to prune down the cost of governance is to reduce the government’s workforce whose entitlements amount to 32 per cent of the budget.
Her words: “On the expenditure side, you said our reduction from 77 per cent to
about 68.8 percent is marginal, but let me tell you that there is room to
do more and you will come to a point where you have to implement the Oronsaye Committee report and eliminate duplication.
“We are aware that there are government agencies that are not rendering any service. But let me tell you, the targets of this fiscal tightening are human beings; they are the ones that must be eliminated to prune down the costs. The cost of personnel in the budget is 32 per cent and that is huge. So, when you get to a point of tackling the recurrent budget, it will then mean people. That is the bottom line; let us just be frank about it.
“And the same public that is crying about cost of governance will remind you that one civil servant is catering for five other Nigerians when you really want to reduce the cost of governance. We had this hue and cry about the misquoting of Lamido and people almost called for his head, but you have to understand that when you talk about reducing cost of governance, you are ultimately talking about human beings.
She described privatisation as robust.
“Nigeria probably has one of the most robust privatisation programmes in the world. We have actually done a research. No country has so thoroughly privatised its power sector the way we have done in terms of the generation, distribution and management of the transmission arm all at once. Some countries and global organisations are looking into this feat as a case study.”
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala also expressed disappointment on the way some Nigerian do not want full deregulation of the downstream sector, adding that government can never be threatened and stopped from doing the right thing.
The minister vowed that those indicted for oil theft would never go free without prosecution.
