OKONJO-IWEALA FAILED OUR 50 QUESTIONS ON ECONOMY —REPS •To face them again Feb 20

THE House of Representatives Committee on Finance, at the weekend, said its historical 50 questions on the state of the economy of the nation to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was not answered correctly and subsequently asked her to reappear before it on February 20 for proper questioning.

Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Honourable Abdulmumini Jibrin, in a statement issued in Abuja, at the weekend, noted that “some questions were either not answered, partially answered, ignored or completely misunderstood.”

According to the statement, “your response to the 50 questions we raised to ascertain the true state of our economy, dated January 15, 2014 was received and carefully analysed by the committee.

“In view of the above and ahead of the investigative hearing on the state of the economy, the committee is obliged to forward to you additional observations and requests to be submitted not later than February 20, 2014.

“The committee further noted glaring missing gaps in the responses, absence of supporting proofs to assertions and lack of relevant documents to back up the presentation as is the practice in any legislative oversight or investigation.

“Many data and statistics provided were inconsistent with subsequent information provided while answering other questions.

“Also noted were the wide ranging comparison you made with other advanced and developing countries while responding to some questions, but failed to apply the same in some cases that obviously require such approach. In some instances, you abruptly referred the committee to relevant agencies for clarification.

“The committee is surprised at that because of its conviction that if all the questions raised are beyond the competence of the Minister of Finance, it is certainly not beyond the competence of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, to the extent of information you must have in your possession unless you say otherwise.

“The observations and requests are made on questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,  14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39, 41, 43, 44, 45, 47 and 48, while further details on the questions 7, 18, 19, 21, 2, 8, 29, 34, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 49 and 50 will be taken at the hearing,” the chairman of the committee noted.

Nigerian Tribune recalled that the minister, in her response to the 50 questions, had claimed that most of the questions from the House committee were full of repetitions and that answers to the inquiries of committee were already in the public domain.