Intervention Fund
Senate: Power ministry smuggles N7 billion into its account without appropriation
The Senate has raised the alarm on how the Ministry of Power smuggled over N7 billion smuggled into the Ministry’s budget without an appropriation from the National Assembly. The Senate has observed that there was no evidence that such money was budgeted for in respect of the Hydropower Transmission Project in either the 2014 or 2015 fiscal year. Senator Matthew Urhoghide, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Edo South led Senate Committee on Public Accounts is raising the alarm of how the Ministry spent such amount of money without getting approval from the National Assembly in line with the law. The Committee is relying on the query raised by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2015 report and brought before it for probe and subsequent presentation to the Senate at Plena...
Senator Lawan: Why privatisation of power sector must be reviewed now
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has called for the immediate review of the privatization exercise of the power sector by previous administrations. Lawan gave the charge in his concluding remarks on a motion considered on the floor during plenary on Tuesday. The motion titled: “Power Sector Recovery Plan and the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic” was sponsored by Senator Gabriel Suswam (PDP – Benue North East). The Senate President, who bemoaned what he described as the “inefficiency of Power Generating and Distribution companies” in the country, called for a review or eventual reversal of the terms of privatization. According to Lawan, parties involved in the shared purchase agreement with the federal government can only seek the intervention of the latter when sufficiently justified. “The...
