Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance again on Sunday summoned the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, over the 50 questions it posed to her on the state of the economy.
The committee, in a fresh memo to the minister, observed that her responses to the 50 questions were either inadequate or inconsistent in many aspects.
The committee, which is chaired by Mr. Abulmumin Jibrin, had handed the questions to the minister last December after a meeting between them degenerated into an exchange of words.
However, on January 15, Okonjo-Iweala replied the questions, saying in part that most of them were repetitive and dealt with matters that were already in the public domain.
But, in its new memo, which was made available to The PUNCH in Abuja on Sunday, the committee observed that she did not even substantiate the questions she attempted with documents or provide adequate statistics.
The memo, which was signed by Jibrin, directed the minister to appear before the committee at its four -day public hearing on the state of the economy which would begin on March 3
Part of the memo reads, “Having gone through your responses, the committee noted that some questions were either not answered, partially answered, ignored outright or completely misunderstood.
“The Committee further noted glaring missing gaps in the responses, absence of supporting proofs of assertions and lack of relevant documents to back up the presentation as is the practice in any legislative oversight or investigation.
“Many data and statistics provided were inconsistent with subsequent information provided while answering other questions.
“Also noted were the wide-ranging comparison you made with other advanced and developing countries while responding to some questions but failed to apply the same in some cases that obviously require such approach. In some instances, you abruptly referred the committee to relevant agencies for clarification.
“The committee is surprised at that because of its conviction that if all the questions raised are beyond the competence of the Minister of Finance, it is certainly not beyond the competence of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy considering the information you must have in your possession unless you say otherwise.
“In view of the above and ahead of the investigative hearing on the state of the economy, the committee is obliged to forward to you, additional observations and requests to be submitted to the committee not later than February 20, 2014.
“The committee has scheduled an investigative hearing to give you the opportunity to explain and defend your submission and to enable Nigerians to participate and make their contributions to this issue.”
The committee had queried about 43 of the responses, saying that they did not address the issues raised.
In some of the questions, the committee had sought to know the exact amount of money Nigeria lost to import waivers since 2011.
In another question, she was asked the relevance of the Sovereign Wealth Fund and why Nigeria’s debt profile seemed to be on the rise again.
She was also asked to explain why the Federal Government was underfunding the EFCC at a time it claimped to be stepping up the fight against corruption in the country.
Similarly, the committee demanded figures on the revenue generated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation from 2011 to 2013, among others.
In part of her response, the minister had stated that the government created 1.6 million jobs, especially through SURE-P, and improved on transport system by speeding up work on several highways and railways.
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