House of Representatives has been told that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources spent a whopping N481 million out of the N740 million budgeted for processing of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the 2010 budget.
Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Goni Musa who appeared last week before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) said that the money was spent on some preliminary activities that needed to be done before the bill is passed.
House of Representatives has been told that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources spent a whopping N481 million out of the N740 million budgeted for processing of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the 2010 budget.
Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Goni Musa who appeared last week before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) said that the money was spent on some preliminary activities that needed to be done before the bill is passed.
The committee which appeared shocked at the huge amount that has been expended on a bill that has not been passed however told the ministry had no justification for spending such a huge amount under any guise when the PIB has not been passed into law by the National Assembly.
However, Musa said the 65 per cent of the N740 million so far spent was meant to take care of extant regulations in the oil and gas industry.
"The process commenced some months ago. For instance, we are carrying out many activities, including the review of the current petroleum regulations in order to align them with the international best practices.
"We are also developing new regulation to cover the down stream sub-sector. The law itself will throw out many regulations. So we don't want to wait until the law is passed before developing regulations," he said.
Committee Chairman, Clever Ikisikpo lamented that it sounded incredible and awkward to hear that the ministry has spent such an amount when the bill has not been passed into law.
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