The Federal Government may have dumped the Senate report which called for the cancellation of sales of multi-billion naira Federal Government companies under former President Olusegun Obasanjo many of which the report alleged were fraudulently sold. �
An ad hoc committee investigated the privatisation programme from 1999 to 2011 and the Senate on December 20 adopted the report which asked the government to cancel the sales over alleged breach of due process and failure of the core investors to meet their obligations.�
But four months after the report was submitted to government, its whereabouts were in dispute. The Senate said the report was submitted to the office of the Secretary to the Government on December 23, but his spokesman Sam Nwaobasi said in response to Daily Trust enquiries that it was doubtful if the report is with his boss.
This is just as the public expressed fears that a similar report on the probe of the fuel subsidy regime by the House of Representatives may also not be implemented.
In the privatisation probe report, the Senate recommended the sack of director-general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises Bolanle Onagoruwa, reprimand of three former BPE chiefs, as well as a rollback of the sales of government companies by the Obasanjo regime.
The report was passed on to the Executive through the presidential parliamentary adviser, Joy Emordi, who in turn submitted it to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, sources in the Senate told Daily Trust.
Government sources said implementation of the report was being frustrated by key government officials on behalf of vested interests.
One official in the Presidency was named as being in the forefront of trying to scuttle the report in order to protect Onagoruwa, who he nominated for the BPE job in the first place.
When contacted for comments on the non-implementation of the report, Lawan (ANPP, Yobe North) said the duty of the National Assembly stopped at investigation to expose corruption and it was the prerogative of the executive to implement the recommendations.
?Implementation of our reports is the responsibility of the executive. We risk our lives, devote our time investigating very powerful people, yet the government won?t implement our recommendations,? he lamented.
?Far-reaching recommendations?
Among their recommendations, which observers said were far-reaching, senators asked for the sack of Onagoruwa for what they called illegal and fraudulent sale of five per cent residual shares of the Federal Government in Eleme Petrochemical Company Limited in violation of the BPE Act.
The Senate also asked the government to revoke the sale of Nicon Luxury Hotel to Mr Jimoh Ibrahim?s company for its failure to inject at least N2 billion to turn the hotel to a five star status. Mr Ibrahim was also asked to refund N900 million and another N1billion paid by BPE for the recapitalisation of Nigeria Re-Insurance Plc.
It called for cancellation of the Nigerian Re-Insurance sale to Global Fleet, owned by Ibrahim. It said though the company was worth over N50 billion, it was sold for N1.05 billion and shortly thereafter, Ibrahim used the company?s assets to secure a N41 billion loan from Union Bank Plc. The company which had staff strength of over 1,000 as at 1996 was reduced to 23 workers under Ibrahim?s management.
Ibrahim?s company had denied any wrongdoing in the transactions.
Senate also recommended the immediate cancellation of the sale of Transcorp Hilton and Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja.
Similarly, the senators wanted Delta Steel Company?s sale to Global Infrastructure Holding revoked because of gross undervaluing of the company and failure to meet up with post acquisition plan as provided by the Privatisation Act of 1999.
Delta Steel which was worth $1.5 billion was sold to the Indians for $30 million. In the same vein, the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) sold to Indians?s Dayson Holding BV should be revoked according to the Senators because the core investors have failed to meet the post-acquisition plan of expanding the company.
ALSCON was initially valued at $3.2 billion and sold to Dayson Holding BV for the sum of $130 million whereas the Federal Government had from the 1980s to 1997 built the company including a 540 megawatts capacity power plant. The BPE had earlier valued ALSCON at $250 million but discounted $120 million to the Russians in September 2006.
The Senate recommended that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should investigate the alleged fraud at VON Automobile by Stallion, owned by the Indian Vaswani brothers who converted the company?s premises to bonded terminal where they import rice and other staple foods instead of providing jobs for Nigerians.
It urged the National Council on Privatisation chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo to cancel the sale of Daily Times to Folio Communications because Folio did not have the money to buy the company but used Daily Times property as collateral to obtain bank loans with which it paid for the newspaper.
Three former directors generals of BPE, Nasir el-Rufai, Julius Bala and Irene Chigbue, were recommended for reprimand for flouting the due process.
SGF?s office evasive
Efforts by Daily Trust to get clear information on the status of the report from Anyim?s spokesman Sam Nwaobasi proved abortive despite several phone calls and visits by our reporter.
In the early meetings with Daily Trust, Nwaobasi said he was not aware if the Senate report had been transmitted to the SGF and that National Assembly resolutions were normally passed on to the President.
Nwaobasi told our reporter on different occasions that even though he was not sure that the Senate would send its resolutions to the SGF, he would still contact a department in the SGF?s office to verify.
When Daily Trust informed him of the date the report was submitted by the Senate, he asked our reporter to meet him in the office for him to verify, but on the appointed day and time, he said he was engaged in an assignment outside the office.
Responding to our reporter over the phone, he said ?I am not in the office now, I cannot verify, I cannot check it out. Can we wait till Monday? You know we said we would find out but now that you are sure, I will now go back and tell them you said it was sent on the 23rd of December last year. It is then that we will give you a response.?
He added that he had tried to meet the officers involved but they too ?are at a loss as to why the Senate, an independent arm of government, would send report to the SGF. But I will make further enquiries and get back to you.?
Nwaobasi did not get back to our reporter as promised up till last night.
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