Media contact: Bunmi Titiloye
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 08033020170

IAP Urges Fed Govt to Introduce Transparent Procurement System
LAGOS 6 JAN 2004: As Nigerians start feeling the impact of the
recently introduced fuel tax, Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), the
good governance group, has called for a radical rethinking of the
administration of the nation's governance system, processes and
procedures, including the nation's tax and procurement systems in a
manner that would improve governance and consolidate the gains of
democracy.

Although the National Assembly is still considering the 2004
Appropriation Bill, petroleum marketers have added the N1.50k fuel
tax to the pump price of petroleum products since the beginning of
the year, with the price of petrol rising to N43 and above per litre
in many parts of the country.

In a statement released in Lagos today, IAP expresses serious
concerns over the ad hoc manner in which the regime of President
Olusegun Obasanjo introduces important policies with little
consideration for the unsavoury impact on the standard of living of
ordinary Nigerians.

The federal government says the fuel tax was introduced for the
purpose of road maintenance owing to government's inability to
retrieve levies collected at the toll gates because of corruption,
IAP is however surprised that government has failed to introduce
workable measures that will make corruption unprofitable at the toll
gates and in other institutions, but chose to impose even more levies
on Nigerians.

The nation's four petroleum refineries are in poor shape, leading to
the more expensive alternative of importing refined petroleum, the
procurement system is nothing but transparent, allowing a $214million
National ID scam for which three former ministers are being tried;
the police, politicians, political parties and parliamentarians are
variously embroiled in allegations of corruption, while the president
himself has admitted that there is corruption in the judiciary.
Besides, the federal government, in the 2004 Budget preposterously
claims that eight percent of Nigerians are living below poverty line
while independent observers put the figure at nearer 80 per cent.

IAP hereby calls on the federal government to plug the leakages in
the system, especially in the collection of taxes - from income tax
to company tax, excise and custom duties and other forms of revenues;
and introduce a transparent and corrupt free procurement processes.

Adds IAP: "While the fuel tax may plug the revenue hole in the short
run, a more permanent and less costly solution lies in the reforms of
institutions impacting on governance; reforms which concretely, not
cosmetically promotes transparency and accountability."
http://www.ind-advocacy-project.org/Press%20Statements.htm

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Independent Advocacy Project (IAP)
5 Iyalla Street, Alausa-Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria.
234 8033020170 Fax: 2341 4934894
e-mail: [email protected]
website: http://www.ind-advocacy-project.org