The Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), has directed the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta, to give reasons for the non-arrival of a training vessel paid for since 2009.
The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Magnus Abe, issued the directive in Abuja on Tuesday when the PTI defended its 2012 budget before it.
“The vessel is a core facility as far as training is concerned. Therefore, we will like you to provide us with the entire details of the contract.
“You have to present before this committee, the original contract sum, the amount paid so far, the amount required to complete the contract and the name of the contractor.”
The Ministry of Petroleum Resources had through the PTI, released N985million in 2009 as payment for the training vessel which had yet to arrive the Nigerian shores from Singapore.
The sum of N173 million was budgeted for it in 2010 but N142 was released while N915.7million had been proposed for the vessel in the 2012 budget.
The Principal of the PTI, Mrs Nnenna Dennar, had told the committee that the contractor was unable to meet the contractual agreement due to financial constraints.
“We were invited in 2010 for ship inspection but when we got there, the ship could not sail. The vessel was not in good condition to sail to Nigeria.
“We need to raise some money to complete work on the ship to enable it sail to Nigeria.”
The committee also directed the PTI to provide it with the list of all the intervention projects being handled by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in the institute.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on Tuesday queried the rationale behind the payment of salaries to judges who were serving outside the country.
This followed the explanations by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr Sunday Olorundahunsi, that the apex court was responsible for the salaries of judges serving outside Nigeria.
The Supreme Court had earmarked N70 million in its 2012 budget as foreign service allowance for Nigerian judges serving in some African countries.
A member of the committee, Sen. Chris Anyanwu (APGA-Imo), noted that any country that invited Nigerians to work in their judiciary should be responsible for salaries of such judiciary officers.
“Nigeria is not in a position to play Father Christmas anymore. We have too many problems in the country that needs to be funded.
“If they invite our judges, they should pay for their services and not put the burden on us.”
The Chairman of the committee, Umaru Dahiru directed the Supreme Court to furnish it with details of how it spent N60 million appropriated for overtime cost in 2011and the amount returned to government.
This was sequel to the inability of the Chief Registrar of the apex court to justify the increase of the overtime cost from N60 million to N93 million in the 2012 budget.
The judicial agencies that defended their 2012 budget before the committee included the National Judicial Council (NJC), the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and the National Institute for Advanced Legal Studies.
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