The alleged N14billion transfered from 2017 budgetary votes of Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority ( NEPZA) to a private company under the cover of Nigeria Economic Zones, came up again Tuesday.
This is as the Senate Committee on Committee on Trade and Investment , vowed to get to the root of the N14, 376, 027, 584.65billion transfer scam.
Speaking in her opening speech during budget defence of the agencies of the Federal ministry of Industry, trade and investment Chairman of the committee Senator Rose Oko ( PDP Cross River North ), said they are aware of the existing legislative query on the Ministry and the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) over the Fourteen Billion, three hundred and seventy-six million, twenty seven thousand, five hundred and eighty-four naira, sixty-five kobo,
illegally transferred from the 2017 Appropriation Budget of NEPZA to Nigeria Special Economic Zones Company.
“This is a breach of the 2017 Appropriation Act. This committee intends to see the query and inquiry to a logical conclusion and seek an explanation how that sum got moved from government coffers ostensibly to a private company without due process and without provision of goods and services.
“We are aware that some of the Agencies such as NEPZA and Onne Oil and Gas Authority have overlapping functions. In our view this needs to be streamlined to reduce wastages”, she said.
She added that the Ministry has critical roles to play in the development of the Nation’s economy, saying ” all the Agencies under the Ministry particularly the Trade and Investment sectors must be up and doing to achieve the target set for the Ministry”.
“Henceforth, the Committee will like to be appraised of details of your Investment drive, especially FDlS and have details of the non-oil trade that Nigeria is currently engaged in as well as efforts to boost it”, she stressed.
Responding , the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Investment, Mr. Edet Akpan, said the N14billion in respect of NEPZA is an item NEPZA should be in a very proper position to explain to the Committee.
He expressed the belief that NEPZA would find a way of doing that. But the idea of opening an equity company was the creative idea of the former Minister.
The permanent secretary said it was more proper to have a centralized equity company that could manage all Free Trade Zones in the country.
This he indicated will create opportunity for investors to contribute towards a particular purse so that money realized from there would now be applied to create and develop free trade zones.
“It was also believed that NEPZA and oil and gas free trade zone should concentrate on regulatory aspects (of their mandates) and not getting themselves involved in operations.
“That was why it was the decision that an equity company was necessary to be created. But then, in all he did throughout that period, he consulted very widely and he also got approval of the Federal Executive Council.
“There was also an Inter-Ministerial Committee to manage this affairs of free trade zones. Now, the Minister also requested from the Budget Office the sum N48billion be appropriated for purpose of that investment in 2017.
“Unfortunately, the amount that was released for that purpose was about N14billion. And that N14billion was again 100 per cent controlled by NEPZA” , he said .
He explained further that the transfer had nothing to do with the main ministry because the main ministry hadn’t the power or authority or anything to do in respect of the amount that was appropriated under a particular agency of the ministry.
His words: ” So that was how it was done, but then, when the Minister thought of implementing the programme, he had meetings with NEPZA for the purpose of requesting that Zesco was set up and that he had gotten the directives of the Federal Executive Council that that money should now be applied and now he requested that NEPZA should then transfer that money to an account that was opened at the CBN.
“That was done. I think in the course of trying to implement the policy of the Ministry, a kind of disagreement in terms of who were the subscribers to the company came up.
“I think one of those subscribers was the Ministry of Finance incorporated and one Mr. Wadinga was choosen as the representative of the Ministry of Finance at that body.”
