…N16.25Trn Lost To Oil Theft
Joseph Bakare
The Executive Secretary, ES, of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, has presented a detailed report on Nigeria’s extractive industry operations prepared by the Organization to the Legislature for scrutiny and further action.
The report shows that a whopping $74.386bn was spent on fuel subsidies by successive governments since 2011.
Orji, handed over the report to the Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Bamidele Salam, during an interactive session in Abuja on Tuesday evening.
The Executive Secretary, disclosed that the sum of N16.25tn was lost to unabated crude oil theft, based on data collated and signed off by the operators and other stakeholders in the industry.
Orji, in the report said the NEITI, uncovered over $8.3bn unremitted revenue by some privately-owned oil companies and Federal Government-owned agencies, which was not paid into the Federation Account contrary to extant financial regulations.
According to him, NEITI is working collaboratively with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, ICPC, as well as Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit to retrieve the funds into the federation account.
He said, “I have here, for instance, revenues we have earned from oil and gas since 1999. We also have here all the subsidy payments made. Since 2005 when it became a scandal, we began to collect the data. We began to ask questions on subsidy and as of 2021, the country had paid $74.386bn in subsidy.
“And we have a breakdown of what was paid each year. We have also got a conversion of what that can possibly translate to.”
On what the nation lost due to crude oil theft, the NEITI boss said, “In the course of this job, we have incentivised a lot of recoveries for the government because between what is paid and what was recovered, a lot of money in foreign exchange developed wings.
“Company A will say we paid $1m and you go to the account of the receiving agency and you find out that either half of that money was not received or more is received more than what was paid because of poor record keeping and carelessness.”
While reading out NEITI’s report released on the 25th of September, 2023, he announced the agency’s readiness to cooperate and work hand-in-hand with the Public Accounts Committee.
“In that report alone, over $8.3bn were unremitted funds on the part of some government agencies and companies. Our concern is that this is at a time when the government is going borrowing. So, we bring this information with incisive and empirical information and data with evidence and table it.
“We have also released the same report on the solid mineral sector and all the information and data are provided. On the 9th of November, we are releasing the last report for the year, which is on fiscal allocation and statutory disbursements.”