• Seeks two-year jail term for offenders
• Rejects alleged move to scrap UTME, NECO
AN alleged misuse of N1.51 trillion has prompted the Senate to process a bill seeking a minimum jail term of two years for public officials who abuse special funds' accounts.
The bill, targeted at ensuring transparency in the use of the special funds, also seeks a N500,000 fine.
The Senate is also processing an Act to amend the Public Procurement Act to provide for a time-frame of 60 days within which the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) must conclude the procedure for due process to enhance easy and fast budget implementation.
The Senate also yesterday described the alleged government's plan to scrap the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) as a policy somersault that was capable of stalling progress in the educational sector.
Speaking through its Chairman, Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerije, the upper legislative chamber advised the government to focus on key problems of the sector, which include access, quality, funding and institutional management rather than spend energy and resources attempting to scrap the two examination bodies.
According to Chukwumerije, if the proposed scrapping is implemented, it will not require a seer to forecast a reversal of fortune in the educational sector in the next five years.
The special funds' accounts are the Stabilisation Account, Ecology Account and Natural Resources Account.
The bill, sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Lawan Ahmed, and five others, also stipulated, among others, that "approvals for funds from the Stabilisation Fund Account shall be subject to recommendation by the National Economic Council (NEC)."
It also provided that "the Accountant-General of the Federation shall prepare and submit to the National Assembly, not later than March 31 in each year, a report on the activities and projects undertaken with funds from the special funds accounts during the preceding year."
A recent investigation by the Senate into the management of the special funds accounts showed that the operations of some of the accounts were grossly abused.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts, which carried out the probe, stated that within the period of 10 years, which the investigation covered, N1.51 trillion accrued to the three accounts. Of this amount, N580.01 billion was released as a loan out of which N347.997 billion is yet to be recovered from various loan beneficiaries.
"A total of N329,329,745,916 was granted as a loan out of which N200,790,991.64 is still outstanding under the Natural Resources Account.
"In the Derivation and Ecology Account, a total of N61,000,000,000.00 was granted as a loan out of which N30,000,000,000.00 is still outstanding, "the report further revealed.
The report, which would be debated after the resumption of the Senate from its Easter break, stated among others that:
• "Several approvals of funds from the Special Funds Accounts do not conform to the purposes for which the funds were established;
• "There were no operational guidelines for the administration, regulations, approvals and procedure for the release of money from the funds;
• "The funds are practically being operated as loan granting pools;
• "Several beneficiaries of the funds utilise the fund for purposes that are not contemplated by the motives for the funds; and
• "The socio-economic development and environmental integrity of Nigeria are threatened by the continuous misapplication of the monies from the Special Funds Accounts to unrelated purposes."
The Senate had in a motion to draw attention to the deteriorating situation in the solid minerals sub-sector of the economy, heard that the Natural Resources Fund, which is 1.68 per cent of the Federation Account meant for the funding of solid minerals development, had never been used for the purpose.
A senator alleged that in 2012, over N250 billion of the funds was withdrawn and utilised for different reasons.
The Stabilisation Fund Account is to provide for unforeseen contingencies and economic downturn while the Derivation Ecology Fund Account is to intervene and co-ordinate the general ecological problems in the country.
On the Public Procurement Amendment, a bill sponsored by Senator Danladi Sankara, which has already been admitted by the Senate, states among other things:
"The Public Procurement Act is hereby amended to stipulate specific time-frame of sixty days within which to complete all procedures for "Due Process."
It stated that all "Due Processes" for any contract should be concluded within sixty days from the date of advertising the projects by the Ministry, Department or Agency (MDA).
The bill, which is one of those awaiting debate as soon as Senate resumes, seeks to provide further legislative frame-work for improved budget implementation by trying to speed up the processes that would facilitate timely projects execution by contractors within the financial year.
The Guardian learnt that this was one of the ways in which the Senate tries to provide solution to the perennial face-off between the Legislative and the Executive arms of government on poor budget implementation.
The Guardian