BIG PROJECT, BIG PROBLEMS?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001072

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2011
TAGS: PGOV EFIN PINS NI
SUBJECT: BIG PROJECT, BIG PROBLEMS?


CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE ANDREWS, REASONS 1.5(B/D)


Summary
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1. (C) The Senate Public Accounts Committee Chairman plans
public hearings on the massive sports stadium now under
construction on the edge of Abuja. Unbudgeted by the
National Assembly, but (for now) privately financed by
contractors eager to please the Obasanjo government (with a
government loan guarantee attached),the ostensibly 38
billion naira (USD 330 million) project raises troubling
questions of the unconstitutional usurpation of legislative
authority. The Committee Chairman faces opposition from the
Executive, from Senate Leadership and from inside his own
committee in his quest to examine the project. Suppression
of his efforts would demonstrate once again that transparency
and accountability are still lacking in government circles.
Successful public hearings, while potentially very
embarrassing for the executive, would begin to establish
those concepts in the public consciousness. End summary.


Let's Build a Stadium Now (And Find the Money Later)
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2. (C) Poloff met with Senator Idris Abubakar, Chairman of
the powerful Public Accounts Committee, on May 9. The
Committee examines the financial performance of all branches
of government. When asked of the status of his Committee's
efforts to examine the performance of the Executive, Abubakar
replied that he had that very morning sent a memo forward to
Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, setting forth the
Committee's plans to hold public hearings on the massive
sports stadium now under construction on the edge of Abuja.
No provision for the project exists in the FY 2001 budget (or
any previous budget). The committee selected the project,
said Abubakar, as the most egregious example of Executive
usurpation of the spending authority of the Legislative
branch.


What It Will Cost, Nobody Knows
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3. (C) Abubakar explained that the contract for the stadium
(not shared with the committee despite repeated requests to
the Ministry of Public Works) was ostensibly for 38 billion
naira (about $330 million),"but we really don't know how
much it will cost." The huge stadium is being constructed to
permit Abuja to host the 2003 All-Africa games. Other
athletic facilities are part of the overall project, as is a
nearby "Athletes' Village". The contractors involved,
including major international companies long resident in
Nigeria such as Bouygues and Berger, were privately financing
the project. Despite the lack of any legislative approval,
said Abubakar, the Obasanjo Administration had given the
companies an open-ended loan guarantee for the project, to
enable the companies to "shop" the project with lenders.
"The companies are guaranteed payment no matter what the
terms they negotiate with the lenders," said Abubakar. The
ultimate cost of the project was, then, "unknowable."


Let's Cooperate -- You Keep Quiet
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4. (C) Abubakar said that Senate President Anyim, on the
express request of President Obasanjo, had previously stymied
attempts by the Committee to investigate the project.
Referring to Anyim's clear preference for behind-the-scenes
communication with the Executive branch (in contrast to his
predecessor's provocative public disputes with Obasanjo),
Abubakar said, "this is the new 'cooperation'. We keep
quiet, and the President does what he wants."



5. (C) Abubakar said that he expected strong opposition to
any public hearings from the Executive branch, from the
Senate President, and potentially from within his own
committee. "Most of us (on the committee) are now for the
hearings, but who knows what will happen. After all," he
said with a smile, "the chief fixer (Public Works Minister
Tony Anenih) is involved. We are going to call him to
testify." (Note: Anenih is the principal political hatchet
man of the Obasanjo Administration, well-known for his
wealth-spreading habits when key votes or other matters are
before the National Assembly). Abubakar acknowledged that he
planned an entire series of essentially unanswerable
questions for Anenih. "What can he say when I ask him where
in the budget he finds authorization for the project? There
is no legal authority for it." Abubakar did not offer an
opinion on what action the Senate might take in the wake of
such public hearings. "Let,s hold the hearing first."


We Are Looking, But We Need to Look Forward, Not Back
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6. (C) Abubakar mentioned that his committee planned a
general audit of all executive accounts, beginning with FYs
97-99 (the last eighteen months of military rule, and the
first six months of the Obasanjo regime, employing the
previous regime's budget). The Auditor-General of the
Federation, explicitly tasked by the Constitution with
auditing all government accounts and presenting them to the
National Assembly, was being helpful and attentive, and
assembling the various audits for the committee. Various
government agencies were not so helpful, many having
"difficulty" complying with their legal responsibility to
give access to their financial statements to the
Accountant-General (who reports to the Auditor-General). But
Abubakar stressed that these "backward-looking" audits were
politically easy. Everyone could support investigations of
military governments. "We need to look forward. It's time
we look at ourselves."


Comment
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7. (C) Abubakar is an opposition All People's Party senator,
head of a powerful committee with a majority People's
Democratic Party membership (the PDP controls the Senate with
sixty-four senators out of 109 total). In a legislative body
with very weak party discipline, he is well-respected by his
PDP and Alliance for Democracy colleagues for his
intelligence and independent-mindedness. He is also not
above making political capital out of what appears to us to
be a clear usurpation of constitutional authority by the
executive. If Senate President Anyim, in league with the
Executive, squelches yet again the committee's stadium
investigation, we will have yet another example of how
accountability and transparency remain mere words with no
great practical implications in government circles.
Committee hearings would embarrass the executive, but also
reassert the essential principle of legislative oversight of
Executive performance. End Comment.


Andrews