By Etuka Sunday
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) yesterday called for an independent audit to be conducted on all subsidy claims made by petroleum marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
NEITI, in its public presentation of two separate audit reports: ‘2007-2011 Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement Audit’ and ‘2011 Solid Minerals Audit’, said there was an urgent need for the federal government’s intervention, to ensure that subsidy payments are made through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF).
NEITI’s Chairman, Mr. Ledum Mitee while rolling out the key recommendations of the report of the 2007-2011 Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement said that the report recommended that going forward, the NNPC should remit its Domestic Crude Oil and Gas sales in the currency that the sales were made.
The reported recommended that a comprehensive independent audit of financial inflows and outflows from the Excess Crude Account be conducted; And similar on Ecological Fund and the Natural Resources Development Fund from inception up to date.
He said since the reconstitution of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT), NEITI has made recoveries from the 2009-2011 Audit Report alone, of a total of N64, 401, 841, 370. 40 from companies, notably: AMNI, Chevron, Midwestern, Mobil, Agip and Total, and another $5.8 million is expected to be paid this week by Express Petroleum and Gas Company.
He said, “We embarked on this very first Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement (FASD) Audit which tracked the disbursements and applications of extractive revenues from the Federation account to the three tiers of government.
“The audit covered nine states of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Gombe, Imo, Kano, Nasarawa, Ondo and Rivers as pilots,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Mrs Zaina Ahmed said the Federal Government earned N26.9 billion from solid minerals in 2011.
Ahmed said that 87 companies participated in the audit based on the materiality level of N1 million.
She said that the report also showed that Nigeria exported a total of 7.12 metric tonnes of solid minerals valued at N11.9 billion during the period under review.
The Executive Secretary said that the key findings of the report showed that the N33.1 million represented the difference between what the companies paid in taxes, levies, royalty and what government actually received.
She said a review of the CBN and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) records on exported mineral showed that there were discrepancies in the value of exported minerals and the associated companies.
Ahmed said that the report also observed that there was poor synergy between the various government agencies.
These, she said, were the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, CBN, NCS, Nigeria Export Promotion Council and Mining Cadastral Office.
She said that despite the fact that Gold and Barite were mined across the nation, there were no records of any royalty or similar payments.
According to her, the report recommends an urgent need to check the incessant smuggling of solid minerals products out of the country.
