Report on $22bn, N481.75bn Unremitted Funds for 2015, NEITI Clarifies

• Report on $22bn, N481.75bn Unremitted Funds for 2015, NEITI Clarifies

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has clarified that the sums of $22.06bn and N481.75bn listed as yet to be remitted to the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, and other companies in the oil and gas sector were as of 2015.

According to NEITI, between that time and now, some reconciliation has taken place and some remittances would have taken place, adding that its 2015 and 2016 report due for release in December this year would provide a proper update on the actual figures outstanding, if any.

Consultants to NEITI had circulated the ‘Summary of unremitted revenue, losses and irreconcilable differences from operations and transactions in the oil and gas sector’ at a national conference on remedial issues held in Abuja on Monday.

The document, however, did not specify the period the summary covered or if any reconciliation had taken place on the figures.

It simply stated that the NNPC alone had yet to remit total revenues of $19.04bn and N424.57bn.

Providing a breakdown of the unremitted revenues by the other firms, the report stated that oil and gas producing companies were still withholding $152.69m and N5.2bn; companies involved in offshore processing contracts, $498.6m; and the NPDC, $2.38bn and N51.95bn.

The NEITI report stated that the total losses to the federation arising from crude oil production, processing and transportation were $3.04bn and N60.99bn.

It noted that irreconcilable differences arising from the allocation, sale and remittance of proceeds from domestic crude allocated to the NNPC amounted to N317.48bn.

The total liability by companies involved in Offshore Processing Arrangements was put at $498.6m, as NEITI explained that the debt was due to under delivery of imported fuel by the participating companies.

It listed some of the companies involved, the transaction and period to include the NNPC-SIR, OPA, between 2010 and 2014, with an outstanding liability of $20.34m; NNPC-Trafigura, SWAP, 2010-2014, with liability of $2.52m; NNPC-AITEO, OPA, 2015, with $104.46m liability; and NNPC-Duke Oil, Stop-Gap OPA, 2015, $11.99m liability.

NEITI later clarified in a statement that the non-remittance of revenue by the NNPC and others did not take place under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which stopped it.

The agency said in the statement by its Director of Communications and Advocacy, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, “For the avoidance of doubt, NEITI wishes to state that the document covered the period 1999 to 2015. The unremitted amounts mentioned largely related to NLNG dividends paid for the period between 2000 and 2015 and money due from 12 assets divested to the NPDC between 2011 and 2013.

“Apart from these being legacy issues, at no point did NEITI mention money missing from the Federation Account. NEITI hereby reiterates the need for the media and other stakeholders to seek clarification when they are not clear, and resist the urge to politicise the work of the agency.

The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Waziri Adio, according to the statement, told the participants that the objective of the conference was to bring the issues to the attention of relevant covered agencies and NEITI partners for a coordinated approach for the benefit of the country.

He traced the history of the remedial issues since 1999 to NEITI’s last report in 2015 and expressed regret that many of the issues have become recurring decimals in successive NEITI reports.

In his contribution, the Managing Director, NNPC Capital, Mr Godwin Okonkwo, who represented the Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, explained that many of the issues being raised by NEITI had either been resolved or in the process of being resolved.