IN ORDER TO recover $6 billion and N66 billion that oil and gas companies owed the federal government, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has collaborated with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The executive secretary of NEITI Ogbonnaya Orji, said this on Monday when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (upstream) to defend the organisation’s 2025 budget.
In a report published in September 2024, NEITI said the outstanding revenues due to the federal government in the oil and gas industry rose to $6.071 billion and N66.4 billion respectively, as of June 2024.
According to the report, the outstanding liabilities are unpaid royalties and gas flare penalties due to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), as of August 31.
Also, outstanding petroleum profit taxes, company income taxes, withholding taxes, and value-added tax (VAT) amounting to $21.9 million and N492.8 million were due to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as of June 2024.
Addressing legislators, Orji said NEITI is cooperating with the anti-graft agency to retrieve the monies.
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“NEITI is working with the EFCC to recover $6 billion and another N66 billion owed to the federal government of Nigeria disclosed courageously by NEITI in our last report published in September 2024 and 30th of October last year. That process is on,” he said.
Orji, who defended the agency’s 2025 budget, stated that N6.5 billion had been set aside for the fiscal year.
Among this, N2.220 billion would be allocated to personnel, N1.722 billion to overhead, and N2.575 billion to capital projects. He also stated that NEITI would publish a report on the country’s mining and oil exploration industries in 2025.
‘N32m BUDGETED FOR MEALS IN 2025’
The executive secretary was criticised by committee members for adding “unnecessary items” to the budget despite the nation’s economic circumstances.
According to Kafilat Ogbara, a member of the Lagos-based All Progressives Congress (APC), NEITI allocated N32 million for meals in 2025.
“There is no way you can spend that amount of money for meals in a year,” she said.
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“Most of our MDAs should ensure that what they are bringing as budget proposal must tally with the line item and the purpose why you want to use such funds.
“Let us not just see budget defence as ‘the money is there and we should share it… so, let us see how to get our own share’.”
Ademorin Kuye, a lawmaker representing Shomolu Federal Constituency said that the agencies shouldn’t assume that the national legislature would accept every budget proposed.
“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,” he said.
Alhassan Doguwa, chairman of the committee, said “Agencies of government must be mindful of what they spend out of public resources”.
“All these proposals are going to be spent at the expense of the Nigerian people. Sometimes, we come to make presentations here that sound funny and very insulting in the eyes of the people,” he said.
Doguwa however said the committee will support NEITI to execute its mandate.
