From Fred Itua and Kemi Yesufu Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Power and Housing, headed by Mr. Babatunde Fashola, is now being fingered by the Senate in a $350 million fraud. According to the upper chamber, Fashola’s Ministry got part of $1 billion from an Euro bond issued by the Federal Government in 2013, which he said, he intended to spend on project Fast Power.
This is coming as the House of Represetatives has also resolved to investigate the implementation of the World Bank-funded N97billion Growth and Empowerment (GEM) project over poor implementation.
Senator Dino Melaye, relying on Order 42 of the Senate Standing Rules, raised the alarm yesterday on the floor of the red chamber.
Seeking the nod of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to sponsor a substantive motion at the next legislative day, and was given the leeway to do so next Tuesday.
According to Melaye, the sum of $350 million was given to IBEX in 2014 by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan but alleged the said money is now being stolen in installments by officials of the Ministry.
In July 2013, the Federal Government raised N1 billion from an Euro bond issue and from the proceeds, the sum of $350 million was given to IBEX in 2014. This money is now being gradually stolen,” Melaye alleged.
The Kogi-born lawmaker further alleged that in 2016, the Ministry came up with a project, named Fast Power which was supposed to build new generating plants to add to power grid.
He said the National Assembly did not approve any expenditure by the Ministry, but that officials of the Ministry are spending without the approval of the parliament.
He added: “As I speak to you, Mr President, sometime last year again, the Ministry of Power, Works nd Housing came up with the project it termed Fast Power. This undigested project is supposed to build new generating plants to add power to our grid.
“There are few questions I need to ask to bring a substantive motion up in another legislative day. Up till date, there are no details to build this new generating plant or feasibility study. There is no appropriation by the National Assembly for this project.
“The Ministry has spent $35 million on the affirmed Fast Power project that has no appropriation or no detailed feasibility study. How and when was this money appropriated? Out of this money, $29 million was purportedly paid to General Electric for turbines, while $6 million was paid to others. This amount, amongst others, is a monumental fraud. We need Senate to investigate this after moving a substantive motion.”
In a related development, the House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the implementation of the World Bank- funded N97 billion Growth and Employment (GEM) project.
The House has, therefore, mandated its Committees on Finance, Industry, Commerce as well as the Aids, Loans and Debt Management Committee to probe the implementation of the project.
The committee is to report back to the house within four weeks for further action.
The resolution of the House was subsequent to the adoption of a motion on the need to urgently, “investigate the Infractions and halt the planned diversion of funds under the World Bank- funded GEM Project”, sponsored by a member, Mark Gbillah
In the meantime, the House has directed the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, the GEM Project Team and the World Bank, to halt the planned movement of $35 million out of the GEM project account.
The lawmakers also directed that the Ministry of Finance, the CBN and the GEM team to immediately discontinue all processes towards the consideration or approval of the new restructuring proposal for the creation of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) Investment Fund.
The GEM project is an employment project conceptualised by the Federal Government under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, aimed at job creation and increased non-oil growth through the empowerment of 4000 SME’s across the country in specific high-potential value chain sectors of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), light manufacturing and Agro processing, entertainment industry, hospitality and tourism, Construction as well as real estate.
Leading the debate on the motion, Gbillah explained that the implementation of the GEM Project was predicated on funding from the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) which is providing a grant of £90 million (strictly managed by DFID) and the World Bank providing a concessionary loan of $160 million domiciled in the project account under the CBN.
The lawmaker further explained that the project is to be coordinated by the Minister of Finance and with a Project Steering Committee chaired by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.
He noted that Federal Government’s borrowing of the funds from the World Bank was approved by the National Assembly in 2013 with the proviso that the project be run from June 2013 to September 2018 based on the indicated project deliverables.
Gbillah alleged that three months into his appointment and barely one year to the expected end of the project, with only 800 beneficiaries out of the 4000 initially proposed, the new GEM Project Coordinator, who he also alleged to be one of the two employees of African Capital Alliance, a private equity firm owned by the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, has initiated the restructuring of the entire project requesting for the release of the allegedly outstanding sum of $35million from the Federal Ministry of Finance for the creation of a parallel SME investment fund.
He added that the fund is to be managed by an independent private company to be registered with the CAC, that will dispense between $250,000 to $2million each to only 23 unidentified companies without government oversight or involvement.