NEITI partners EFCC to block revenue losses

Ogbonnaya-Orji

The Nigeria Extractive Transparency Initiative, NEITI and EFCC are to collaborate to ensure blockage of revenue losses in the country’s extractive industry.

The Director of Communication, NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya-Orji who made this known in Lagos while delivering a lecture, stressed that NEITI would stop at nothing in its efforts to ensure that mineral resources in the country translate to improve living standard for all Nigerians.

Making reference to the 2014 NEITI Audit Report of the country’s oil and gas industry which threw up many issues, one of which was the huge revenue losses, Dr. Ogbonnaya-Orji  said the situation was that bad due to the secret way the nation’s oil and gas industry was operated and  stated that NEITI had risen to that challenge to entrench a system of transparency and accountability in the critical sector.

“Before , what you had in the oil and gas was a close business. No body knows who is doing what. The information about the oil and gas sector was very exclusive. We in NEITI are concerned with the huge huge revenue loss based on the 2014 audit report we carried out. Going forward, we are tying to develop  MOU with the FFCC. They have assured us of their willingness. We will give them our report . They go through it and find out areas of infraction that bother on their own mandate . They take it from there. They must be that inter-governmental relation for things to work”.

Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji  said  that the NEITI had gone beyond the recommendations of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, ( EITI is global body, with the mandate of judiciously managing their natural resources to develop their societies and improve people’s living standards)  which it is signatory to, in efforts to entrench due process in the extractive industry.

 “The NEITI Act has some additional responsibilities. Instead of of just saying, how much did government receive?, how much did companies paid?, the National Assembly said we should ask further questions . Did companies pay what they ought to pay? Did government receive what they ought to receive?

He spoke on the NEITI's report which indicted the NNPC of failing to remit to the Federation account, the sum of 12 point 9 billion dollars paid by the NLNG as dividends between 2005 and 2013, as well as another 1 point 2 billion dollars dividends paid by the same company in 2013 alone, among other irregularities.

 “When the reports have been released, we send copies to the National Assembly, auditor general, and Federal Executive Council. We also hold meetings with them. The essence is to identify those who are causing some of these problems and how to hold them accountable”.