FORMER Minister of Finance, Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Thursday revealed to members of the House of Representatives panel probing the alleged misuse of power project fund how former President Olusegun Obasanjo�s government spent N220.4 billion on the energy sector in two years.
The former minister, who is now World Bank Managing Director, also told the panel that due process certificates were not issued for power project contracts during the past administration because Obasanjo approved waiver of due process for the contracts.
Okonjo-Iweala, who said that the original sum set aside for the NIPP project was not more than $2.5 billion, also washed her hand of the projects, saying that it was the former minister of power and steel who asked for the waiver of Due Process for the contracts which Obasanjo approved.
Giving the breakdown of the money, the former minister said the government approved N54.6 billion in 2004 out of which she said N54.4 billion was released to the power sector.
She told the committee that in 2005, the government approved N91.1 billion for the power sector and released N71.8 billion while, according to her, the government approved N74.7 billion to the sector and released N74.6 eventually.
She also disclosed that shortly after the NIPP projects took off, $857 million was released for the funding of the contract from $2.5 billion initially approved for them by the government.
Okonjo-Iweala said her schedule of duties then did not make her responsible for monitoring of contracts awarded by the government on power projects, disclosing that she was only responsible for approval of money for projects approved by the Federal Government on specific instructions.
She said though she was a member of the economic team of the administration and the vice president of the Presidential Technical Committee on Power Projects, she could not give detailed explanations on how the NIPP contracts were awarded because she was busy with negotiations for debt relief for Nigeria.
The former minister hailed the decision by the Federal Government under Obasanjo to give special attention to the power sector, disclosing that the money taken from the excess crude account by the government to fund the NIPP contracts was taken as loans.
He said the government took the money as loans to ensure that repayment to the Federation Account would be made after the successful privatisation of the energy sector.
The former minister said while it was necessary for the probe panel to focus attention on the technical aspect of the issues involved in the power sector, it was equally necessary for the members to note that good technical decisions were necessary to make electricity work in line with laid down plans.
The former Director General of Due Process, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, who also testified before the probe panel, denied knowledge of the NIPP projects, stating that she was never a member of the committee on power projects.
She told the panel that she agreed with the position of both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the office of the Accountant General of the Federation that the money released by the Federal Government for the NIPP projects was not more than the figures they quoted.
While the office of the Accountant General earlier told the probe panel that the government only released $6.8 billion for the power projects, the CBN governor, during his testimony, gave $4.2 billion as the amount so far released by the government for the projects.
She said while her tenure in the Due Process Office lasted, the Federal Government was able to save N137 billion, being inflation of the sum of contracts approved by the government.