House of Reps said Okonjo-Iweala had to remake the answers to their 50 questions
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has reviewed Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's answers to the 50 questions about the state of national economy and directed her to remake them.
On December 19, the lawmakers gave 50 questions to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy and asked her to submit the answers by January 2.
But the Minister asked for more time saying some of the answers were "very weighty" and handed in her 100-page response only on January 16.
After studying the answers for two weeks, the Committee said that some of the questions were "either not answered, partially answered, outrightly ignored or completely misunderstood."
The lawmakers’ made their position knows in a letter addressed to the Okonjo-Iweala and signed by the Chairman of the Committee Abdulmumin Jibrin on January 31.
The Committee said they found "glaring missing gas" in the responses. They said some of the answers missed supporting proofs or lacked relevant documents to back up a point.
They also noted that many statistical data presented by Okonjo-Iweala were inconsistent with subsequent information provided.
The lawmakers also expressed their disapproval of the Minister referring them to other government agencies for details to some of the questions.
The Committee resent what it described as "additional observations and requests" on virtually all the questions and requested additional details on 15 questions.
Ngozi-Iweala is to provide clarification before February 20.
The House Committee also fixed March 3–6 for the public investigative hearing to give the Minister "the opportunity to explain and defend your submission before the Committee and enable Nigerians to participate and make their contributions to this issue."
"…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," they said.
"Your responses this time and submission of the supporting document are expected to put issues in clearer perspective to enable the Committee conclude preparation for the hearing," the Committee said.
Source: Legit.ng
