[size=14pt]Okonjo-Iweala gets ultimatum on fuel subsidy report[/size]
By Onyedi Ojiabor,02/12/2011 01:00:00

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Okonjo-Iweala

The Senate ad-hoc Committee probing the management of fuel subsidyfund  yesterday asked Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to tender before it details of the audit report of fuel import in the last 11 months.
The demand is coming even as the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI) faulted the management of the fuel subsidy fund.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Magnus Abbe, gave the directive during its resumed public hearing at the National Assembly.   
Abe warned that should the minister fail to produce the required documents within seven days, the committee might be forced to issue a subpoena to that effect.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala told the committee that the quantum of fuel import is being recorded by auditors engaged by the Federal Government, but the panel insisted on access to the report to enable it carry out an inquest.

She requested for time to  tidy up the records. But the committee insisted she will be given only seven days.
The committee also took up issues with the difference between the amount voted for fuel subsidy for 2011 - about N245.9bn - and the N1.34bn so far spent.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala told the committee that the Ministry of Petroleum would be in a position to explain the difference.
The Minister insisted that the removal of the fuel subsidy remains the best option in the circumstance.

She noted that the poor masses would be the beneficiaries, if fuel subsidy is removed.

She said: “We want the poor to benefit from the subsidy, but as it is now, that is not the case. It is our neighbouring countries that now buy it at cheap price and sell at high price. We are subsidising for them. If we must subsidise, it has to get to the poor.”

Also responding to a question on alleged plan by the Federal Government to remove subsidy on fertiliser, the minister said;
“We are not removing fertiliser subsidy. We are only restructuring the way it works. We want a situation where the larger population of the people who should benefit actually get it and not a few people hijacking it.’’

Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke promised that new refineries being planned by the government would be properly done.

She noted that contractors who handled the old refineries were being engaged for the projects.
NEITI handed down a damning verdict on the management of fuel subsidy.
In a report presented to the committee by the management of NEITI led by Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the body observed that ‘’under normal process, subsidy payments should be made from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF).