Bill To Scrap National Economic Intelligence C'ttee Scales Second Reading In Senate

ABUJA, May 07, (THEWILL) – A Bill for an Act to repeal the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) Act from the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2011 scaled the crucial second reading in the Senate on Tuesday.

The bill is sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba.

Leading the debate, Ndoma-Egba said the bill seeks to repeal and remove the Act from Nigeria’s statute books because it has outlived its usefulness.

Ndoma-Egba (PDP,Cross River) said the original bill which was enacted as a decree during the General Sani Abacha military administration also seeks to analyse the annual budget and extract all economic measures requiring enforcement, analyse the monetary guidelines issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and monitor implementation of all measures enumerated therein.

The Bill was subsequently referred to the Senate Committee on Finance with a directive by the Senate President, David Mark, to report back to Senate at plenary in two weeks time.

He declared that a close look at the objectives of the committee revealed that with current economic realities and the numerous reforms that have been carried out in that sector, the committee was no longer functional.

“The objectives and activities of this committee are embedded in the Ministry of Finance with the Budget Office and other institutions fully in place. Apart from the Ministry of Finance and its parastatals, the National Planning Commission is also performing similar functions.

“The decision of the executive to repeal this act is a right step in the right direction and it is in line with the rationalisation policy of this administration. The Bill is timely and it will save us cost and wastage,” he said.

The Senate President in his contribution said the committee was relevant when it was created then but due to the dynamics of time the committee is no longer relevant.

‘’We are trying to downsize government agencies and reduce the level of bureaucracy, if these duties of the committee has been taken up by other agencies, there is no need for this committee. There are so many bodies doing the same thing, so we should take a second look at it and repeal, ” Mark said.