We'll never cover up Corruption- Saraki

Senate President, Bukola Saraki says the
present senate under his leadership will never
cover corruption except if the information
didn't come to them. Saraki said this while
speaking with a team of editors of the London
based "The Economist" newspaper at the
weekend.
"Under my watch, the Senate will never cover
corruption except if the information didn't
come to us"he said
According to a statement by his Special
Assistant on Public Affairs, Mohammed Isa,
Saraki said the Senate is ever ready to partner
with President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure
the success of the anti-corruption war. The
Senate, he said had already demonstrated
such commitment through its interventions
on many alleged corrupt transactions such as
its swift investigation and adoption of a
report on the management of the Treasury
Single Account (TSA) that saved the nation
about N7billion and the exposure of the
inconsistencies in the 2016 budget.
The step, he said was a departure from the
past where such reports were either watered-
down or not presented for debate and
adoption. He cited the report he presented to
the last Senate on the over N1trillion fuel
subsidy scam that never saw the light of the
day.
In furtherance to the commitment, the Senate
President said Nigerians would in the next few
weeks be availed with the details of the
National Assembly budget which will be a
departure from the tradition of having one
line item budget.
"For the first time we promised Nigerians to
give out our budget breakdown. The
committee will make its report available by
next week. We are resolved to break the
tradition of one line item," he said.
Saraki said though party differences exist
between the senators, citing example of the
leadership tussle, he, however said, national
interest and the desire of each senator to
fulfil the promises made to Nigerians have
become the guiding principle of the senate in
their team work.
On the economy, he said the Senate has
embarked on series of legislative
interventions to create conducive
environment for the private sector, as he
said, "it is only when the private sector
thrives that the issue of unemployment will
be addressed and the nation's GDP will
increase."
"Few days ago, we received a report on the
laws that need to be amended in order of
priority importance to ease doing business
and overall private sector participation in the
stimulation of Nigeria's economy. We will
soon commence the implementation of the
recommendations in the report in addition to
pushing for the amendment of the
Procurement Act to stimulate and protect our
local industries," he assured.
He blamed lack of firmness and consistency
in policy implementation by the past
administrations as the main obstacle for the
growth of the private sector.
"If people have confidence that these policies
have come to stay, nothing will stop them
from coming to invest in the country," he
stressed.
He allayed the fears that the low prices of oil
will have negative impact on the
implementation of the 2016 budget, saying
that, "what we need to do is to block leakages
and show more transparency."
"If we can block leakages, stop the wastages
and institute a culture of transparency in
governance, the revenue in-flow will not be substantially affected. Without these, even if
oil is sold at more than a $100 per barrel, we
will continue to witness a decline in revenue
in-flow as we witnessed in the past," Saraki
said.