The House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to immediately clarify all interests and principal sums on the investments in the Excess Crude Account (ECA), Petroleum Profits (PTT) and Royalties Account to the Auditor-General for the Federation’s Office.
The legislator’s call was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Rep. Esosa Iyawe after its debate at plenary.
Moving the motion earlier, Hon. Iyawe said that the CBN as the banker to the Federal Government remained the custodian of investment vehicles, including the PPT and the ECA among others.
According to the lawmaker, statistical data from the 2015 Annual Report of the Auditor-General for the Federation showed that an interest of $1.82 million was deposited in the ECA as interest on investment but that there were no details on the principal sums deposited, the tenor and the interest rate.
He said: “The CBN has flagrantly and consistently refused the requests by the Auditor- General for the Federation to disclose the details regarding the management of interests accruing from the PPT/ Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account;
“Reports which revealed unapproved and indiscriminate withdrawals from the ECA, including current year expenditures, fuel subsidies, debt financing and power projects, all of which are outside the fund’s mandate.
“Disturbed that the 2016 audit report revealed the disappearance of over $9.5 million interest accrued from the PPT investment”, Hon Iyawe added.
The lawmaker alleged that obscurity had consistently characterized the management of interests accruing on Federal Government investments in contravention of the accountability principle, and points to misuse of the much-needed government funds.
Similarly, he noted that the ECA had been characterized by controversy, allegations of corruption, and uncertain performance.
According to him, the absence of rules governing deposits, withdrawals and investments in the ECA were responsible for the Natural Resource Governance Institute ranking Nigeria as the second-most poorly governed fund among 34 resource-rich nations.
The lawmaker lamented that over the years, the ECA had consistently been trailed with allegations of mismanagement and several lawsuits challenging its legality since there is no law backing it.
Also, Hon. Iyawe recalled that experts had raised concerns several times over ECA’s balances, which seemed to be changing without any corresponding evidence of withdrawals or approvals of such withdrawals.
He pointed out that the lack of transparency from the CBN about the ECA transactions had negatively affected the revenue accruable to the Federation Account as well as undermined the Federal Government’s efforts to plug leakages, reduce corruption, and improve revenue for the Federation.
Following an elaborate deliberation on the motion, the House resolved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to determine the legality of ECA and investigate the status and management of all the principal sums deposited, tenor, and interest rate of the PPT/Royalty and ECA from 2015 to date.
In his final comment, the Deputy Speaker of the Green Chamber, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, mandated the committee, when constituted, to ensure compliance with the resolution of the Whole House on the matter.
