The Senate Wednesday vowed to carry out a holistic investigation to uncover $1.035billion fraud in the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing.
Also, the Senate vowed to probe allegations leveled against the Ministry that it spent $35 million on a project without appropriation by the National Assembly.
The alarm followed a motion by the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West, who spoke under Order 42 of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as Amended.
Senator Melaye, who told senators during plenary that the ministry got about $1 billion from Euro bond issued by the Federal Government in 2013, alleged that $350 million was given to IBEX in 2014 by the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, stating that the said money was stolen in instalment by officials of the ministry currently manned by former Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, as minister.
He said: “In line with the anti-corruption posture of this chamber, especially now that our cries and observation are yielding evidence as expressly manifested in the case of Babachir Lawal, today I bring to the attention of this Senate to a monumental fraud in the power sector.
“In July 2013, the Federal Government raised $1billion from a Euro bond issue. From the proceeds, $350 million was given to IBEX in 2014. This money is instalmentally stolen.”
Melaye, who alleged that in 2016, the ministry came up with a project, named Fast Power, said the project was supposed to build new generating plants to add to national power grid.
The Senator reminded his colleagues that the National Assembly did not approve any expenditure by the ministry, and wondered why officials of the ministry were spending without the approval of the parliament.
According to him, “The Ministry of Power came up with the project they termed Fast Power. This 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, among others, is a monumental fraud. We need Senate to investigate this after moving a substantive motion”.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, also gave nod to the request of Melaye to sponsor a substantive motion on the allegation at the next legislative day on Tuesday, November 7.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, in reaction to the Senate’s allegation, said the Fast Power project, was an initiative undertaken by the Federal Government to improve power supply to consumers, adding that the project was ongoing.
The ministry said the initiative was in collaboration with General Electric to generate 240 megawatts of electricity.
Speaking with Vanguard via a telephone conversation, Mr. Hakeem Bello, Special Adviser, Communications to the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, said, the 240 MW initiative was aimed at using eight of General Electric’s units of 30 MW each.
He said the first programme was to be located in Afam, near Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where there was already in existence the required gas and transmission facilities, adding that the minister recently visited the project site.
He said all necessary procurement processes, such as pre-shipment inspection, payment, clearing, and so on, had been concluded with respect to the Fast Power Initiative of the Federal Government.
Mr. Bello recalled that “The Fast Power Initiative started last year on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, the GE-manufactured turbines for the projects are already in the country.
CULLED FROM: VANGUARD
