The lawmakers also demanded that a full investigation be conducted into the activities of HYPREP and all payment made by the agency.
Lawmakers at the House of Representatives have ordered Stanbic Bank to immediately freeze the account of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), the company in charge of the Ogoni clean-up.
The lawmakers also demanded that a full investigation be conducted into the activities of HYPREP and all payment made by the agency.
The decision was made at plenary on Thursday after it considered a report investigating the implementation of the treasury single account (TSA) policy.
The House also resolved that, “all government ministries, departments and agencies who violated the TSA policy should be sanctioned accordingly and payments outside the TSA policy should be suspended as it is seen as an attempt to circumvent the policy.”
The lawmakers at the Lower Chamber also resolved that the Ministry of Finance and office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) publish and sanction all MDAs, private organizations and banks where federal government’s funds are hidden with immediate effect.
The AGF was also asked to “carry out a quaterly appraisal and reconciliation of the TSA/CFR account and publish reports on the performance of the TSA” and that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should “make full disclosures on the natures and status of the fund in the NNPC Pension Fund Ltd domiciled in Aso Savings and Loans Plc.”
HYPREP is an agency of the Ministry of Environment tasked with the cleaning of communities affected by oil spillage in Ogoni, Niger Delta region.