The lawmakers in the Senate is set to probe the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) over its failure to remit N800 billion to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency.
The non-remittance could have negatively impacted the Road agency as it was expected to use the amount to maintain all major roads across the country.
The Senate seems to be leaving no stone unturned in its crusade against non-remittance. Nairametrics had reported that Senate ordered an investigation into the failure of CBN to remit over N20 trillion into the Federation Account. The N20 trillion was generated from stamp duty charges collected from banks and other financial institutions from 2016 till date.
[READ MORE: Senate to investigate CBN over non-remittance of over N20 trillion stamp duty charge]
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, explained that the probe will enable the lawmakers discover where the money is and will also allow PPPRA to defend its handling of the N800 billion.
he said, “I believe that we need to demand what happened to over N800bn that the PPPRA was alleged to have collected.
“I think that we will take that as a separate issue because we need to verify and confirm, even for the sake of allowing the PPPRA to defend itself. This is not something that we can sweep under the carpet. N800bn can do a lot of things for our country.” He said in a Punch report.
Systemic corruption in play: Lawan, who announced the probe after the passage of a bill for an Act to repeal the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency Act, 2002 and to establish the Federal Roads Authority Bill, 2019, said corruption is behind the deplorable state of Nigerian roads.
[READ MORE: Senate to investigate CBN over non-remittance of over N20 trillion stamp duty charge]
He called for partnership between the Nigerian government and the private sector in order to ensure construction of the roads, and that systemic corruption had frustrated government’s concession effort in the past, “Corruption is also responsible for some of the challenges we face in our road sector.
“We recall that the privatisation of various enterprises was made right from 1986 till date, and in most cases the privatisation or concession processes were flawed and of course, we suffer as a country.”
