The Senate Committee on Gas has raised concerns over the disbursement of N100 billion allocated for execution of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (PCNG) project to beneficiary companies without approval from the National Assembly.
Jarigbe Agom, the chairman of the committee, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said the act is against the constitutional provision of the Procurement Act of 2007.
The Chairman decried that the government officials who contracted the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas project failed to secure consent from lawmakers before disbursing funds to beneficiary companies.
The Presidential CNG Initiative (Pi-CNG) is an intervention of the Bola Tinubu administration to allow Nigerians to convert their petrol vehicles to CNG vehicles at a reduced cost. The initiative was introduced after the government abolished petrol subsidy.
Committee demands details of disbursement from Finance minister, Edun
The Senate Committee on Gas, had on Wednesday directed Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, to release details of the awards and disbursement of funds to the beneficiary companies within seven days.
“The committee insists that it amounts to breach of the procurement Act for the PCNG to go ahead with the disbursement without the approval of the National Assembly . The President has good intentions and we cannot allow his intentions to be frustrated. Nigerians are in pain and we want results” he stated.
The Committee chairman explained that supervising funds released for projects by federal government agencies are one of the major functions of the lawmakers.
He therefore reiterated the Committee’s position on the seven days ultimatum given to the Finance Minister to send a comprehensive brief of the details of the awards and disbursement of funds to beneficiary companies.
“The Senate is saddled with the responsibility of oversight and we will be failing in our duties if we are indifferent to how agencies of government spend the funds released for various projects.
“We as a committee therefore cannot be blackmailed or intimidated to abandon constitutional responsibility and the committee still stands by its seven day ultimatum given to the minister to furnish details of the disbursement of the fund which was in gross violation of the public procurement Act of 2007”, he added.
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