Senate wants Excess Crude Account abolished

The Senate has called for the abolition of Excess Crude Account (ECA),  urging the Executive to pay the amount above the oil benchmark into the Federation Account in compliance with the Constitution.
The Red Chamber on Tuesday further requested the Executive to act in conformity with Sections 80 (1-4) and 162(1-3) of the 1999 Constitution (Amended) in its revenue receipt and expenditure.
These resolutions followed a motion by Rose Oko (PDP-Cross River) and co-sponsored by 18 other Senators.
Presenting the motion, Oko said the ECA was set up in 2004 to provide savings for the country and stabilisation for the economy during periods of shortfalls in oil revenue.
Oko expressed regret that the ECA was not in tandem with Sections 80(1-4) and 162(1-3) of the 1999 Constitution.
She stressed that the accruals to the ECA was expected to be the amount above the benchmark of crude oil sales.

Checks and balances

She also said that the funds accruing to the federation were being operated without checks and balances providing loopholes for imprudence and financial recklessness.
According to her, a report by the National Resource Governance Institute rates Nigeria’s ECA as one of the most poorly managed around the world.
According to the report, operation of Nigeria’s ECA is discretionary and at the whims of the executive.
“The ECA increased from 5.16 billion dollars in 2015 to over 20 billion dollars in 2008 and decreased to less than four billion dollars by 2010 with no known tracking of its operations.
“Also, at various times and from several quarters in 2013, it was reported that five billion dollars was missing from the ECA and that two billion dollars was withdrawn without authorisation.
“By May 2017, government announced a resumption of payment into the ECA of 87 million dollars ostensibly since May, 2015, arbitrarily.
“Furthermore, between May, 2015 and August, 2017, about 122.2 million dollars had accrued and ought to have been paid to the ECA,”’ she said.