We’ll recover subsidy overpayment, Okonjo-Iweala vows

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said yesterday that the Federal Government would recover the excess payments made to petroleum marketers, as soon as the Aigboje  Aig-Imoukhuede committee completes its assignment.

She revealed this in an interview after delivering a lec-ture at the second Prof. Barth Nnaji Lecture, at the Enugu State University of Technology, Enugu. 

President Goodluck Jonathan established the new Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede Committee, last Thursday, to verify and reconcile the findings of the Technical Committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Finance to conduct a detailed review of all subsidy claims and payments made in 2011.

According to the minister, the Presidential Committee, which had been given a deadline of one week, would enable marketers who may doubt the findings of the Com-mittee to come forward and be confronted with the bare facts of the earlier panel’s findings.

Okonjo-Iweala explained that although over 50 per cent of the N888 billion fuel subsidy budgeted for 2012 had been utilised owing to the heavy 2011 arrears, she was hopeful that a substantial recovery would be made from the excess payments which would augment the current balance.  

“In terms of the subsidy, it is true that we budgeted N 888 billion for the year.  We have used N451 billion of that.  We still have N370 billion left that we are working on.  So it is not like all the money is finished and we will be working on that,” she said.

“As you know, there was a recent report to verify 2011 arrears, that with the sup-port of Mr. President, I set up, chaired by Aig-Imokhuede.  We set it up in the Ministry of Finance and they have worked.  They used over 20 forensic accountants and bank examiners.  As a result, Mr. President two days ago constituted a Presidential Task Force also chaired by Mr. Aig-Imokhuede to try and just complete work on the verifica-tion and then begin the recovery,” the minister added.

“The verification is to give a chance to any of those marketers who say, ‘oh, maybe you got it wrong here or there’ to come forward.  And the President has given them a very tight deadline of about a week. When we finish with that then the next stage will be for us to try and get our money back.  

“We must get some of those resources back.  Let’s wait for the resources to come back.  I am sure Nigerians will like that and then we can take it from there,” said Dr Iweala.“President Jonathan has directed the 15-member committee headed by Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede to begin work immediately and conclude its assignment by 1700 hours on Friday, July 13, 2012 as a prelude to immediate ac-tion on all identified cases of fraud.

Earlier in her lecture, the minister noted that Science and Technology held the key to the much needed rapid development and therefore must be accorded a place of priority by both governments at all levels, on the one hand and the private sector on the other.

She lamented that abysmal attention that Science and Tech current suffers in both sectors and therefore called for a closer collaboration between the two with a view to creating the needed, that would transform research findings in the laboratories of universities and research in-stitutes to increase industry production, in the country.

The minister also called for concerted efforts toward diversifying the nation’s economy, which currently depends on only oil as its major foreign exchange earner. Sectors that require immediate attention, according to her, include: agriculture, solid minerals, and services, among others.

JOE AGU of Nat.Mirror

Advert:

London College For Sale