.Queries SMEDAN
Senate on Tuesday said it is not aware of the planned arrangement by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to concession or put for outright sale some of the national assets in the country.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Privatization and Commercialization, Senator Theodore Orji who made this known while speaking with newsmen said the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has not been carrying the committee along in its activities.
He said that the Committee will request for all relevant documents regarding the sale and concession of the government owned assets.
Orji however said that the Committee is not against a situation whereby capable Nigerians buying the national assets provided they would show patriotism in handling it.
He said, “The position of the Senate Committee on Privatization is that we are not aware of the planned arrangement by the Bureau of Public Enterprises to either concession or put for outright sale, some national assets in the country in order to fund the 2021 federal budget.
“During the BPE budget defence before my committee, I complained bitterly that the relationship between our committee and the BPE, has not been very cordial due to the behaviour of the DG, BPE.
“This is a man that if we call him on phone, he would not answer and if we send him a text message, he would not reply. How then does he want us to communicate? There should be a synergy between the Senate or its committee on privatisation, and the BPE because that is the major parastatal that we oversight.
“I also believe that that the Senate Committee on Privatisation should be carried along when most of the arrangement to either sell or concession our national assets are being made so that we would be aware. Let me assure Nigerians that there is no member of the Senate Committee on privatisation that knows about all these things except they read it on the pages of newspapers.
“We were never briefed by the management of the BPE. We were not there when the necessary documents were signed. We were never invited at all. When the DG, BPE came to defend his agency’s 2021 budget proposal before us, we asked him why he didn’t invite us at least as witnesses, he merely apologised.
“This is neither the first time nor the second time that such a thing would happen. When it happened the first time, I accosted him and asked him why he prevented us from carrying out our statutory job.
“However, we felt this is the best time to open up so that tomorrow, Nigerians would not blame the senators of being part of the sale of our national assets, we know nothing about the entire transactions as a committee.
“We want to assure Nigerians that the committee will carry out its functions by summoning the DG, BPE. We would demand for all the documents relating to the entire transactions. We would ascertain whether due process was followed. We would also look at the amount that the BPE put up the assets for either outright sale or concession.
“We would scrutinise the papers to see whether they are fair or ridiculous amounts because what Nigeria as a nation needs now, is money. I am not against a situation whereby capable Nigerians buying the national assets so far, they would show patriotism in handling it. However, what I am against is a situation whereby the assets would be sold to people who would not be capable of handling them.
“A good example is the situation we are experiencing with the paper mills. None of them is working again today because I don’t think the people who bought them are capable. If Nigerians who are capable of managing our national assets are interested, let us sell to them at a reasonable price so that nobody would feel cheated. Apart from summoning the DG, BPE, we are also going to pay a surprise oversight visit to ascertain to the various locations of the assets being put up for sale or concession to ascertain their current state.
“We would go there for an on-the- spot assessment in company with consultants and we would send our own report to the appropriate quarters to compare and contrast. Apart from the latest national assets listed by the BPE to concession or sell in 2021, our committee had also listed those that had been done in the past with a view to resisting the entire transactions and the process adopted in putting them up for sale or concession.
“Some of them are the Transcorp Hilton, the power plants, and the assets in the oil and gas sector that had been concessioned.”
Senate Queries SMEDAN over failure to account for N298m
Meanwhile, Senate on Tuesday queried the Small and Medium Development Enterprises Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) over failure to account for N298 million advance payment granted to some officials of the agency.
This query is contained in 2015 Auditor General Report which was submitted to Senate Committee on Public Account chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide who frowned at the failure of the SMADAN to present supporting documents of the N298 million spent by some of its officials in 2013.
Spirited efforts by the Director General of SMEDAN, Dikko Radda to defend the spending before the Committee hit the rock as all the documents presented before the committee to justify the spending were the expenses of 2014 not that of 2013.
Responding to the evidence presented by the SMEDAN, the representative of Auditor General, Adeagbo Ajibola said that the documents presented before the committee were that of 2014 not of 2013.
But, the Director General of SMEDAN claimed that it was as a result of mix up when they were compiling the documents.
The Chairman of the committee however frowned at the failure of the SMEDAN to address the issue raised in the Auditor General’s report before the Committee saying the excuse is not tenable before the Committee.
The query reads, “Audit review of the Internal Auditor report made available revealed that in December 2013 a total amount of N298 million as advances.
But in a written response of the agency before its appearance on Tuesday said, ” The Agency Internal Auditors observations were fully addressed and all personal and non -personal advances granted for the period under review have been dully retired.
“Meanwhile, as advised cash advances will be retired as when due, and successive advance will not be granted without retirement of previous one.
