Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said it is working in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover about $6 billion and another N66 billion owed the Federal Government by industry stakeholders in the oil sector.
Executive Secretary of NEITI, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, who disclosed this while defending the 2025 budget before the House Committee on Petroleum Resources, Upstream, said the agency has presented all its reports in the extractive industry before the parliament.
He said NEITI was set up to enthrone transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector as well as the mining sector, adding that the agency was handed a budget envelope of N6.5 billion for the 2025 financial year.
This is made up of N2.220 billion for personnel, N1.722 for overhead and N2.575 billion for capital projects.
He said some of the critical activities of the agency in the year 2025 will include conducting industry report of the oil & gas and mining sectors, as well as fiscal allocation and statutory disbursement audit, research studies on the actual volume of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) consumed in Nigeria, the economic impact of energy transition in Nigeria and a national perception survey EITI implementation in Nigeria.
Orji said from its 2020 and 2021 report alone, over $3.7 billion were recovered into government coffers as outstanding liabilities from companies operating in the oil and gas sector in the country.
However, members of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources, Upstream queried the agency for repeating items budgeted for in 2024, while also including items that are not justifiable in the current economic situation in the country.
Kafilat Ogbara said agencies of government should ensure that what they bring to the parliament as their budget comply with the line items specified in the budget and not just see the annual budget as a ritual of appropriating money so as to get their own share of the national cake.
Ogbara queried why the agency will budget N32 million for meals in the 2025 budget when Nigerians are going through hard times, saying: “There is no way you can spend that amount of money for meals in a year. What are you serving outside water and tom-tom?
“A lot of Nigerians are suffering and you are giving us a figure of N32 million for meals and you even put National Assembly on the list of stakeholders. I can’t remember this Committee going to oversight this agency since it was inaugurated.”
She said: “Most of our Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should ensure that what they are bringing as budget proposal must actually tally with the line item and the purpose why you want to use such funds.”
Also contributing, Ademorin Kuye, said in preparing the annual budget, agencies of government should be mindful of the economic situation in the country, adding that the impression of Nigerians is that the National Assembly is a rubber stamp and will approve anything that is brought to them by government agencies.
Kuye said: “We are all aware of the situation in the country and we must be circumspect and be prudent in our expenditure because the general feeling out there is that the National Assembly is just a rubber stamp and whatever they bring is what we approve and that is not so”
Chairman of the Committee, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, also faulted the language used by the agency in the preparation of the budget and the inclusion of the National Assembly as those benefiting from its welfare package.
Doguwa said since the Committee was constituted, it has not visited the agency on oversight, wondering why they will be included in such welfare package, adding that the only welfare the House expected from them was the welfare of the Nigerian people.
