Oshiomhole asks Okonjo-Iweala to account for $30b excess oil cash

 
oshiomhole and iweala

Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala got yesterday an arduous task from Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

She shoul tell Nigerians before leaving office how the economy was managed since her coming on board in 2011 and account for about $30 billion that ought to have accrued to the government based on the official oil exports of 2.3 million barrels per day, the governor said.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, with other members of the Federal Executive Council, will take a final bow from office today after the end-of-tenure dinner, where President Jonathan will hand over governance to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

But the Edo governor insisted that the irreducible minimum expected of Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala as a former World Bank Managing Director and a Minister of Finance worth her salt is to tell Nigerians why the management of public finance was shrouded in secrecy under her tenure.

Oshiomhole’s request was contained in his article entitled:  “Economy: Okonjo-Iweala’s hidden figures”, which is published in full on page 2 of this edition.

He said Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s tenure as Finance Minister remained “a bile in the dish until she clarifies her role in the management of resources.

In the article, the Edo State helmsman accused the minister of mismanaging the economy and abuse of financial regulations.

According to him, the minister has not explained how a $10 billion balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was drawn down to $2.O7 billion between December 2012 and now, when only $4 billion was shared from the account.

Oshiomhole said: “Indeed, the last time any money was shared from the ECA was in May 2013. For six clear months in 2013, the National Economic Council (NEC) did not meet, an act many believed was contrived to conceal information on the operations of the ECA. When eventually the NEC met after those six months, the minister reported that the ECA had dropped to $4 billion.

“For the sake of transparency and accountability, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala has a duty to herself, to the nation and the international community to account for what transpired in the ECA by giving full disclosure of how much accrued to ECA on a month-by-month basis and the subsequent outflows.”

The governor alleged that the minister encouraged financial impunity by unilaterally taking money from the ECA to fund the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) and the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) for consultancy services on the Second Niger Bridge.

Oshiomhole said: “Why the minister should fund SURE-P from the ECA is inexplicable, because it is a complete violation of the law and due process. In this regard, it is necessary that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala makes available to the nation SURE-P’s financial statements, indicating clearly the sources and uses of funds.

“It is also a fact known to all that under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), only the National Assembly (NASS) has the power to appropriate monies for subsidy. Similarly, nobody spends money that is not appropriated or in excess of what was appropriated without recourse to the NASS.

“In the first place, ECA is not an exclusive preserve of the Federal Government. It belongs to all the tiers of government: federal, state and local governments. Moreover, the minister has no power whatsoever to spend monies without the express consent and approval of the state governments.”

On the SWF, the governor said: “It is understood from the law establishing the SWF that the state governments are part of the decision-making regarding the operations of the Fund.

‘However, till date, no state government has any idea about how the Fund operates or how it is managed. Like the ECA, its management is opaque.

“The only information we stumbled upon as state governments is that the minister of finance had unilaterally and without recourse to NEC and the state governments, withdrawn money from the SWF to fund consultancy services in the name of the Second Niger Bridge.”

He also took on the minister on her accusation that state governments have been finding it difficult to pay salaries, accusing her of leaving the log in the eye of the Federal Government to draw attention to the speck in the states’.

His words: “Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was quick to blame state governments for not paying salaries but the situation with the Federal Government employees is even worse. Things have gone so bad that even salaries of federal employees have to be paid by recourse to irresponsible borrowing from the capital markets.

“Let me state for the record at this juncture that while Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, as Minister of Finance, is borrowing recklessly to pay salaries of federal employees, in Edo State, we are paying salaries as and when due, including teachers employed by local government areas without recourse to borrowing.”

On how he arrived at the $30 billion figure which should have accrued to ECA, Oshiohmole recalled how he was forced to raise the issue at one of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.

He said: “This prompted me to ask a very pertinent question: if the closing balance of the ECA as at December 2012 was over $10 billion and that for three years running Nigeria’s budget have been based on the average of between $77 and $79 benchmark while the average price of Nigeria’s crude has been $108 per barrel, suggesting an average of about $30 per barrel, how come that there was no accretion to the ECA?”

He wondered why the minister waited till the twilight of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration before alleging fraud in the subsidy claims by Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN).

“The question to ask is: how come that it is now, for the first time, that we are hearing from the CME about fraudulent claims by the oil marketers amounting to billions of naira? At what point did the CME realise that these fraudulent and similar claims are going on? When did it start? Is it just recently or it has been going on all along?,” the governor posited.

According to him, the proper thing to do is for Okonjo-Iweala to clarify her role before leaving office.

He said:  “In this regard, I wish to remind the minister that before she leaves the stage, she is duty bound to inform the state governments, as critical stakeholders about the financial status of the SWF backed up by convincing evidence.

“There is too much of secrecy surrounding the management of our public finance. The earlier the minister comes clean on the management of our financial resources, the better for all of us, so that the incoming government will derive the baseline from which to launch its economic recovery strategies to combat our present morass.

“This is the irreducible minimum that is expected of any minister of finance worth his/her salt. Otherwise, for now, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s tenure is a bile in the dish.”