•technical audit on Ajaokuta steel plant starts Jan. 31 — Audu
More drama over the defence of the 2025 budget continued on Wednesday as the National Assembly directed the Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, to stop appropriating the functions of the agencies under the ministry.
A case involving N2billion was queried by the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Steel Development where Audu appeared on Wednesday to defend the proposals of the ministry.
The N2bn, which was captured in the approved 2024 budget of the ministry, was for a boot camp to train youths in metal works, a function meant for the Metallurgical Institute, Onitsha in Anambra State.
Besides the wrong placement of the training money in the budget of the ministry, the committee questioned the choice of the title for the advertisement placed in the media to all applicants, saying that it raised suspicions about transparency.
The advertisement captured the boot camp as “technical support for SMEs for training around foundry production in three geopolitical zones.”
The Co-Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Zainab Gimba, and the Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Steel, Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, while raising the query, sought to know why a training project captured as technical support for SMEs was advertised by the ministry as training boot camp for 700 youths.
According to Akpoti-Uduaghan, who hails from the same Kogi state as the minister, the matter could easily land Audu and his team at the ministry in the net of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) if a petition was written against them over an alleged attempt to cause deception.
She stated, “Let me note this now. This is already a public record. So just if anyone here has access to this information, which I’m sure they do, and decides to write a petition to EFCC, you and your team could be arrested for this.
“I hope you understand because what this means is that you are carrying out an exercise that is not contained in the budget and that leads to misappropriation of funds.
“I hope you understand because what should have happened is there should have been a corrigendum and we are giving you a chance.
“You did say that even though you budgeted N2bn, you have only had a release of N1.6bn, but no Kobo has been spent out of it yet. So, we are just advising you so that you will not have EFCC running after your necks.
“You should actually go back to the drawing board and take it that the funds you have spent conducting the little exercise which is an advertisement with the wrong advertisement should be corrected.”
Adding her voice to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s submission, Hon Gimba said, “Please, we are asking you to do that now. Let me just clarify. Minister, as a rider to what you are saying, let me tell you, Honourable Minister, before we came into this meeting, I spoke with the Permanent Secretary, I told him that this thing is not correct permanent secretary, let’s correct it because no human being is perfect. We cannot all be perfect.
“Maybe in the procedure, there are things that are not done. We are not here in the National Assembly to wait for you to make mistakes and then we say you have done wrong. But it is in the procedure. If I want, I can keep quiet. After doing the whole thing, executing it, I can say you are wrong and then you cannot reverse it.”
The committee later directed Audu to return the N2bn to the budget of the Metallurgical Institute and to ensure that the bootcamp was done in collaboration with the agency.
He was also directed to halt further interference with the operations of the agencies under the ministry.
Meanwhile, Audu spoke of the current state of affairs at the Ajaokuta Steel Company, disclosing that the planned technical audit of the firm would start on January 31.
The audit will precede the rehabilitation, completion and operation of the steel plant and the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), both of which are located in Kogi state.
The Nigerian Government had in September 2024, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the original builders of the steel plant, Messrs, Tyazhpromexport (TPE) and members of their consortium Messrs Novostal M and Proforce Manufacturing Limited to carry out the technical audit.
At Wednesday’s session, Akpoti-Uduaghan again asked the minister to give an update on Ajaokuta Steel.
She said, “We are now approaching the end of January. When will the technical audit start? Because to me, I believe we should tackle that project wholesomely. We need to start with a technical audit so that the buildup of repairs will commence immediately.
“Can you tell us when we would expect the Russians with their partners to commence the technical audit because time is going.”
Responding, Audu asked the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Chris Osa-Isokpunwu, to address the issue.
Osa-Isokpunwu responded, “Immediately after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, the ministry commenced the procurement process for the technical and financial audit.
“Advertisements were made, time was given. The stage we are now is preparation to present it to the Federal Executive Council for approval.
“Once that presentation is made and the Federal Executive Council approves that project, then the technical audit will start.”
But, his response prompted more questions from Akpoti-Uduaghan, “The Federal Executive Council sits every week. Are you guaranteeing Nigerians that at the next Federal Executive Council, the technical audit proposal will be approved?”
Osa-Isokpunwu replied, “What I would say at this point is that as soon as we get the ‘no objection’ to proceed to the Federal Executive Council by the Bureau of Public Procurement, we will take the memo to the Federal Executive Council.
“That will be based on the availability of a slot for the presentation of memos at FEC. I do not run the Secretariat of FEC.
“However, once the Bureau of Public Procurement issues us the certificate of no objection, within 48 hours after, the Honourable Minister will transmit the memo to the Secretariat of FEC.”
The Kogi senator asked him when the BPP would send the ‘no objection’ to the Ministry and the Permanent Secretary said only the Director-General of the BPE, Ayodeji Ariyo Gbeleyi, could answer the question.
Still not satisfied with the answer to her question, Akpoti-Uduaghan said, “How long have you been expecting no objection from BPP?”
“I need to know the timeline. How long has it been? Did you just submit the proposal last week? Or last month? Or two months ago? We need to know. Maybe it’s BPP we are going to hold responsible for the delay of the process.”
The permanent secretary said, “I’m not familiar with the processes of the Bureau of Public Procurement. We submitted our request for ‘no objection’ about two months ago. So, Chairman, I don’t know if I can help you.”
The submission of the permanent secretary infuriated members of the joint committee and accused him of being lackadaisical with his approach to the whole issue.
Audu came to the rescue of the permanent secretary by accepting that the Ministry has been too slow on the matter.
The minister said, “Mr. Chairman and distinguished members, I think the feedback from the joint committee is loud and clear. The speed at which we are going through the process of getting a ‘no objection’ from BPP is too slow.
“I think that is the message that I’m hearing from the committee members. The feedback has been heard very loud and clear. I can assure you that I’ll continue to put the permanent secretary under a lot of pressure for us to get out the ‘no objection’.
“Perhaps, the methods and the way we’ve been following up is inadequate. We are going to put more gas to the pedal to ensure that the ‘no objection’ comes out.
“This is because it’s very, very important to Nigerians for the technical audit to start, particularly with the original builders and their Nigerian representatives.
“We have a lot more work to do in that regard. The Perm Sec has heard, and directors of the ministries have heard very loud and clear that the joint committee on steel is unhappy with the pace at which we are processing the ‘no objection’ from BPP. So I want to appeal to your further patience.
“In the next few days, I can assure you that we’re going to ramp up efforts to at least get out the ‘no objection’. Today is the 22nd of January. I believe before the end of the month we will get it.
“I’ll do everything humanly possible to ensure that it comes out so that we can get these things going. So I want to assure you that I’ll put the ministry under pressure. I’ll continue to put the Permanent Secretary under pressure.
“Everybody can hear me. Nigerians can hear me. The directors are all here. The person who liaises with the BPP is here. The Permanent Secretary is here. All the most senior memberships are here.
“The pace at which we are getting, we are processing this BPP ‘no objection’ is too slow. We need to bring it out, latest by the end of January and we hope to get the FEC approval immediately.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Solid Minerals: NASS doubts FG’s commitment to diversify economy, summons Edun, Bagudu, budget DG