The House of Representatives Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (SCR) vowed to take castigatory measures against MTN and Airtel for their non-compliance with the committee’s invitation.
According to members of the House of Representatives, they have repeatedly invited the CEOs of MTN and Airtel to appear before the house, but both CEOs have failed to honor these invitations numerous times.
Order of Arrest
She said that the committee had no choice but to invoke its powers by issuing a warrant of arrest. She, however, gave MTN and Airtel the last warning to honour the committee’s invitation or face the arrest warrant.
“Section 89, 8 of the Constitution mandates individual companies as invited to make themselves available to parliament, but they break the law.
“I want to tell MTN and Airtel that they take so much from our nation and they feel too big to appear before the parliament; we will not tolerate that.
“We gave them the powers to operate in Nigeria, so to refuse to honour the invitation of the parliament is a no-no; we take exception to it.
“I have taken all friendly measures to make them understand the need to appear before the parliament, but they have refused.”
“If you feel you are responsible, then you should appear before the parliament. We want you to be responsible and accountable,” she said.
She said that despite operating from across the country, they had disrespected the same nation by not honouring the House invitation.
CSR bill
According to the Committee, the CSR bill being considered is to make provisions for sanctioning Nigerian companies that are defaulting in performing CSR.
The Committee’s Chairman noted that some companies operating in the country have over time violated the existing law, hence the need for punishment to be imposed on them.
However, the representative of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria at the public hearing, Mr. Wondi Ndanusa, expressed concern about the proposed penalty of imprisonment for defaulting companies, stating that the penalty should rather be persuasive.
He also said that many companies were faced with a lot of financial burdens and responsibilities, adding that the proposed SCR should be domiciled with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Mr Bala Wuoir, the representative of the Oil Producers Trade Section, expressed concern that the PIA already mandates oil companies operating in Nigeria to make a financial contribution of 3% of their profits to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).