Reps summon Works and Finance Ministers over road maintenance funds

The House of Representatives’ committee on works has summoned the Minister of Works, Hassan Lawal, and the Minister of Finance over the non-remittance of the mandatory five per cent user’s charge on petroleum products to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA).

Others also summoned by the committee are the director-general of the Budget Office, Bright Okogwu; managing director of FERMA, Kabiru Abdullai; and the managing director of Petroleum and Product Marketing Company, Reginald Stanley.

They are to appear before the joint committees on works and petroleum resources on Wednesday.

A letter signed by the deputy chairman of the committee, Kabiru Jalo, to the ministers and the head of the agencies, said they will explain the whereabouts of the proceeds of five per cent mandatory deductions from the sale of petroleum products in line with Section 14 (h) of FERMA Amendment Act.

The committee had said last week it discovered that funds, running into billions of naira which were expected to be remitted by the PPMC to the finance ministry and paid into FERMA’s accounts for the maintenance of roads, had not been released.

Where is the money?

It said that the road maintenance agency has consistently denied ever receiving the funds, raising questions as to whose custody, among the several agencies involved, the money is in.

The invitation of the officials is coming on the heels of recent outcry against the state of the nation’s roads by the people, especially lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly.

The investigation was to unearth the whereabouts of the five percent petroleum tax that ought to have been channelled into road maintenance across the country.