![](https://abntvnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/FF000417-BB9D-4EC7-88A0-9FB0BB4F53AA.png)
THE Senate has given the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, seven days within which to give details of the award and disbursement of over N100 billion to companies engaged in the handling of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas, P CNG, projects allegedly done in breach of the Public Procurement Act 2017.
According to the Senate, the request for the details is coming on the heels of fresh plan by the PCNG to release another N130billion to unspecified number of companies.
It alluded to the ignoring an earlier warning by the gas committee that spending tax payers money on the said gas infrastructure development projects without National Assembly approval would amount to extrabudgetary expenditure and gross violation of the Public Procurement Act.
In the letter, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas Resources, Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, PDP, Cross River North, asked the finance minister to forward to the committee comprehensive records of the award and disbursement of over N100billion and list of companies engaged in the handling of the project.
The committee had earlier commended President Bola Tinubu for the CNG initiatives but asked the president to urgently present a supplementary budget to National Assembly to cover such spending.
The letter asking the finance minister to furnish the committee with details of the award and disbursement of over N100billion was sequel to a fresh petition by a group, known as Good Governance and Transparency Front, which accused chairman of the steering committee of presidential CNG initiative of approving the disbursement of the funds to cronies without following the due process and the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
The group also in the letter to the committee, stated that the PCNGI had not made any progress, even with the disbursement of N100billion because the PCNG refused to engage experts in gas development in the execution of the project.
The committee said in the letter made available to journalists yesterday: ”I am writing to request for comprehensive brief regarding the utilization of the sum of N100 billion allocated by the federal government for the development of gas infrastructure aimed at providing Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, to Nigerians as an alternative to fossil fuels.