Senate to Hold Public Hearing on Debts
From Efem Nkanga in Uyo
In a bid to determine the local and foreign debt profile of various government establishments across the country, the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts will soon convene a public hearing to ascertain the true nature and amount of the nation's debt portfolio.
This was disclosed to our correpondent by Senator Effiong Bob who is Vice Chairman of senate committee on local and foreign debts.
Bob reiterated that the public hearing will be held on resumption after the recess and will help the committee appraise the position of the debt portfolio before advising the executive on what action to take in relation to the debts.
Accordion to him, "we will clarify if something is wrong or not. For example, some states are claiming that their debt burden is not as much as the federal government claims it is,while the Federal Government on the other hand is insisting that states owe that much", adding that a public hearing is necessary so that all that can be sorted out''.
He said the committee has several reasons to convene a public hearing, one is the fact that since the Debt Management Act says that states must seek approval before they borrow, if we find out that any state government breached the act by borrowing without approval, such state will be made to pay for it.
The essence of such a hearing is that nothing is hidden, people can come for information and also give information and their position about the debt issue.
On the relationship between the executive and the legislature, Bob denied that the legislature was a rubber stamp of the executive. He declared that people fail to realize that most members from the senate are from the ruling PDP, the same party with the president.
He added that in "party politics, majority will always, under normal circumstances get its own way, the opposition may have its own say but when it comes to voting, majority will call party men and they will take a decision that will support the party that the president comes from". Bob reiterated that it would have been different if the president was from the minority party, that would have made the opposition stronger.
Commenting on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy to increase the capital base of Banks from N2billion to N25 billion, Senator Bob stated that the development was good, because it will make Banks more efficient and encourage mergers and acquisitions.
He averred that some banks' managing directors are not supposed to be managing directors because they lack the prequisite experience and technical know how to manage the banks. "When banks merge as they would because of this new policy, most of the present managing directors of banks will either be out of work or will become regional managers only, he stated."
The lawmaker, who represents Uyo Senatorial district at the Upper House, expressed support for the deregulation policy of the Federal Government, stating that the policy will ultimately bring down the prices of fuel products because it encourages competition. He gave an example of the telecommunication industry saying that before the advent of deregualtion in that sector,NITEL held sway but with the influx of other operators,competion has made for better service and given people a choice.For example, if MTN does not work, and is not efficient, you go to globacom or MTEL.
He expressed the opinion that the teething problems seen in the fuel sector inspite of deregulation are because proper groundwork was not done before the sector was deregulated.
He urged the federal government to leave the running of NEPA, NITEL etc to the private sectors to run, because it will ensure profitability and efficiency.
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