Lawan Recants on Submission of MTEF/PSF Draft for 2020 Budget

•Senate summons Malami, Sylva over $9.6bn P&ID’s claim
•Inaugurates 69 standing committees today

Deji Elumoye in Abuja
The Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, yesterday recanted his earlier statement on the submission to the Senate, of the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework ( MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) documents from the executive for the 2020 budget.
He said at plenary that the Senate was yet to receive the documents.

Lawan, last Friday, in anticipation of a prompt submission of the documents, had promised that the first major work of the Senate upon resumption yesterday would be the consideration and approval of the MTEF.

He told journalists upon return from an overseas trip on Friday evening, that he had been informed that the executive had forwarded the documents to the National Assembly.
But he sang a different tune yesterday as he said after an hour of executive session that the National Assembly was still awaiting the receipt of the document.

“The Senate at the closed-door session resolved to await the transmission of the MTEF/FSP documents from the executive to it and by extension, the House of Representatives,” he added.

The MTEF and FSP documents as stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, are proposals that must be presented first to the lawmakers by the president for required approval of parameters upon which the budget estimates are based.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act placed so much importance on the MTEF document to the extent that it has spelt out the specific details of its contents and scope.

Also yesterday, the Senate summoned the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Timipre Sylva, to appear before it and brief the legislature on the $9.6 billion recent judgment awarded to Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) against Nigeria by a law court in London.

This was sequel to a point of order raised at plenary by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, who expressed concern over the judgment that he claimed has put the country in bad light.

According to Opeyemi, “my motion is on the need to invite the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation and other relevant stakeholders to brief relevant committees of the Senate on the award of $9.6billion against the federal government of Nigeria, by a United Kingdom court in the matter of P&ID versus Federal Government of Nigeria.”
The Senate, therefore, resolved to invite Malami and Sylva to brief four of its committees – judiciary, petroleum (upstream), gas and power – on the court judgment.

“The Senate, accordingly resolves to invite the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, in the company of other relevant stakeholders, including officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and professional arbitrators engaged on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria in this regard, to comprehensively brief the Senate Committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream), Gas Resources and Power on the details of the 2010 contract with P&ID as executed, reasons for the default as well as the handling of resultant negotiations, arbitration, court proceedings and steps being taken to resolve the matter in the overall best interest of the Nigerian economy and security of the nation’s assets at home and abroad”.

Malami, according to Lawan, who presided over plenary, is expected to explain to the committees what steps Nigeria is taking to resolve the issue at stake.
Meanwhile, Lawan will today inaugurate the 69 Standing Committees of the Senate.
Lawan who made the announcement at plenary yesterday, read out the full list of members of the committees.
He said the committees’ inauguration would be done at once.

The Senate President had on July 30 shortly before the Senate proceeded on an eight-week long annual vacation which ended yesterday , announced the composition of the committees by naming their chairmen and vice chairmen.

The composition of the chairmanship of the 69 committees as announced then, showed that while the North-west has 16 slots, South-west 13, North-east 11, North-central 10, South-south 10 and South-east Nine.
Chairmanship of 16 out of the 23 of the standing committees considered to be ‘juicy’ , were given to APC senators while their PDP counterparts got the remaining seven.