BY ONWUKA NZESHI
Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tuesday said contrary to the perception in some quarters, the executive had been diligently implementing the 2013 Appropriation Act and was not waiting for the amendment it proposed to the National Assembly.
Okonjo-Iweala stated this when she met with the Joint House Committees on Appropriation and Finance to clarify some of her statements on the state of the economy.
The minister debunked the accusations that she predicted the collapse of the economy, stressing that she only warned of the consequences of the non-passage of the budget amendment bill currently pending before the National Assembly. Okonjo-Iweala also reiterated her earlier position that the federal government may run into difficulties paying salaries by September unless the National Assembly restored the N38 billion removed from the budget during its passage.
On the implementation of the 2013 budget, she added that so far, N600 billion had been released as the capital component of the budget while N585. 7 billion had been cash backed and therefore available to the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). Similarly, she disclosed that the capital component of the budget had attained 67 per cent utilisation.
According to her, N400 billion was released in the first quarter while N200 billion was released in the second quarter of the year. However, she said the economy was facing challenges on two fronts, namely: dwindling oil revenue and low receipts from Customs duties.
On the first area of concern, she said the economy was suffering due to the problem of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and frequent shutdown of oil pipelines by oil firms once the pipes were compromised by the vandals.
Okonjo-Iweala explained that given the outlook of the global economy, particularly with the discovery of shale oil and the cut down on Nigeria's oil exports to the United States, there was need for the country to take seriously the need for the diversification of its economy. The minister hinted that the diversification had started already with the growth recorded in local rice production, adding that it was also this growth that has reduced the importation of food into the country and reduction in revenue from the Nigeria Customs.
Okonjo-Iweala allayed the fears of the lawmakers over their constituency projects, saying that N50 billion out of the N100 billion allocated to the constituency projects have been released to the MDAs that are making procurements for the execution of the projects. The balance of the constituency project funds, she said, is currently in a special account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and could be accessed as soon as the MDAs and the designated contractors were prepared to execute these projects.
In a related development, the CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Jonah Otunla, were absent at the second day of the investigative hearing to unravel the status of all assets seized and recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since inception.
In line with its tradition, the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes refused to accept the delegations sent on behalf of the duo.
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) was grilled on the status of land seized from a former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank, Cecilia Ibru.
Managing Director of AMCON, Mustapha Chike Obi, told the committee that the land value of N14.5 billion, going by a document with the committee, was incorrect.
Chike-Obi said the land was 101 hectares and not 1,001 hectares as contained in the committee's document. "AMCON subsequently paid for the land in order to recover value for the share holders of the bank and it has nothing to do with the EFCC and EFCC did not recover a kobo from that asset.
"All the value in the asset was given back to the shareholders of Oceanic Bank and the correct size is 101 hectares that have been encroached upon and reduced to 96 hectares as at today. "It is not an EFCC recovery, it only helped in their law enforcement capacity," he said.
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