Senate President Bukola Saraki, on
Tuesday, promised to visit the alleged corruption in the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation and that the Senate, under his
leadership, would fix the amount the corporation could spend to run its
operations.
Everybody wan deal with NNPC ooo....hehehe...Saraki said this when member groups of
the Civil Society Situation Room, led by the convener, Mr. Clement
Nwankwo, paid him a visit in Abuja.
The senate president lamented that the
non-provision of operational budget for income generating federal
agencies had been responsible for leakages in government’s revenues.
“Such
era where there was deliberate non-provision of operational budget for
agencies of government to function was over,” he said, assuring his
guests that the 8th Senate would, on resumption from its current break,
promptly attend to the 1999 Constitution Amendment bill, the 2011
Electoral Act Amendment Bill and the Petroleum Industry Bill.
He said, “Some of us have strong views
that issues of budget must be transparent; the days are gone when
agencies like the NNPC would be functioning without operational budget.
“We must move away from that because one
of the key issues that we have now is the issue of revenue leakages due
to lack of transparency.”
The Senate President noted that some of
the bills were critical to the current reform project of the Federal
Government, hence, they would be given accelerated attention.
He said, “You have raised a number of
bills, one of which is the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which is key to
deepening the electoral process.
“More importantly is the Constitution
Amendment Bill, which unfortunately could not be assented to after all
the work that was done on it.
“I can assure you that as soon as we
resume, we will begin discussion on how to go about bringing all those
bills that are people-oriented back with a view to fast tracking their
passage.
“As soon as we resume, we will find a
way of fast tracking some of these people-oriented bills that are still
left to be attended to.”
Saraki assured Nigerians that the Senate would work hard towards ensuring transparency in governance.
He said, “On the issue of transparency
of oversight, we will work very hard to see the areas where there can be
improvement on our part.
“As duly elected representatives of the
people, we will work closely with every stakeholder in our onerous task
of building a prosperous, secured and egalitarian society, where the
dividend of democracy will be felt by the people.”
He urged the CSOs to be more proactive and constructive in their approach to issues.
He said, “I recognise the importance of
Civil Society Organisations in a nascent democracy. You have done
creditably well so far. On our part as legislators, we will be open,
transparent and accept to work together as a team in order to transform
our abundant resources to the betterment of Nigeria and Nigerians.
“The Senate President assures you that the senate under his leadership will be steadfast and improve on our oversight functions.
“The budget processes will be
transparent, we will continue to prevent revenue leakages and enact laws
that are relevant to the welfare of the people.”
Nwankwo said his group visited to seek partnership in the governance process of the country.
He solicited the support and partnership
of the National Assembly while highlighting areas of cogent interest,
such as bills on People living with disability; Electoral Acts (as
amended); PIB and the Constitutional Amendment which he prayed the
Senate to ensure its effective implementation.
Nwankwo promised to work with the National Assembly to evolve issue-based legislations.
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