NNPC urges lawmakers to simplify fiscal provisions of PIFB

Ministers should account for execution of constituency projects, says Tejuoso 
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has urged the Senate to simplify the fiscal provisions in the Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill (PIFB) to ensure easy implementation of the law.

Speaking at a Senate Joint Committee Public Hearing on the PIFB, Petroleum Host and Impacted Communities Development Bill (PHICDB) and Petroleum Industry Administration Bill (PIAB), NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said there was need for inclusion of clauses that would make it easy for the law to be reviewed in response to economic, technical and other realities.

Baru, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Gas and Power, Saidu Mohammed, said the bill would improve oil and gas operations and attract investments into the country.

He said there was the need to leave out regulatory issues in the bill to ensure progress and empower the commission to regulate the industry.

According to him, NNPC was fully in support of the bill, which has now been broken into regulatory, operational and administrative segments for easy passage. 

Meanwhile, Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Dr. Lanre Tejuoso, yesterday said the executive should be blamed for any infractions in the execution of constituency projects.
 
He spoke at a programme organised to mark the Mamaye Day 2018, aimed at improving the country’s health budget performance, with the theme: Budget Releases And Implications On Health Budget Performance. 
 
Tejuoso argued that legislators usually identify the projects, while ministers execute them, adding that if there was misappropriation of funds allocated for constituency projects, the ministers should be held accountable. 
 
On the insertion of N55 billion for implementation of the Health Act, Tejuosho said that padding should be expected once the executive fails to capture the people’s needs.
 
Also speaking, Country Director of Mamaye, Tunde Segun, said proper budgeting and timely release will help tackle the issue of maternal and child mortality in the country. 
 
“Reducing infant and maternal mortality is not one magic bullet, we have done a lot using evidence-based approaches because we know why these women die, when they die and what to do to ensure that they and their babies live.

“However, there is nothing you can do without resources, human, material, buildings, drugs, vaccines, the whole gamut that makes a health system functions,” he stated.